Torrential rain triggers urban flooding in Kunming
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E-mail Xinhua, July 20, 2013
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Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, has been receiving its biggest rainfall of the year since Thursday. [Photo/Xinhua] |
In Chongqing Municipality, also in southwest China, water levels on the Yangtze River are expected to reach 21.79 meters around 2 p.m. Saturday, according to the municipal marine bureau.
Such levels will be 10 meters higher than those seen on Thursday, threatening the safety of passing ships. Rescue ships and marine workers have been organized to stand by in the event of an emergency.
Heavy rain since Tuesday has also triggered floods in Hunchun in northeast China's Jilin Province.
Officials with the water resources department of the city said 150 people from 15 villages in Hadamen Township have been relocated, as seven houses were toppled and 300 others were damaged in the floods.
Roads, a bridge and the embankment of a river were destroyed and 58 hectares of crops were damaged, resulting in direct economic losses of 1.18 million yuan (190,000 U.S. dollars), the officials said.
The township government is repairing the river embankment to prepare for more rain expected on Saturday.
In neighboring Liaoning Province, two rounds of torrential rain since Monday have flooded more than 50 reservoirs, according to a statement from the provincial flood control and disaster relief headquarters.
Another two rounds of rain are expected to hit the province by July 23, posing a continued flood risk.
The provincial traffic department has ordered traffic workers to inspect 34,000 bridges in the province and make necessary repairs, said Liu Huanxin, chief of the department.
The order came after a bridge collapsed on Tuesday following two days of heavy rain in the city of Fuxin, leaving four people dead.
