CHINA / National |
Natural disasters kill 62 in China last month(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-11-04 17:21 Natural disasters such as droughts, floods, landslides and mud-rock flows had killed 62 people in China last month, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA). Serious autumn droughts resulted in about a third of the fatalities in natural disasters that affected about 648,000 people nationwide. Droughts occurred mostly in the eastern Shandong Province and southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with floods mainly in the southern province of Yunnan and northern province of Hebei. And a total of 95 landslides occurred in such regions as northern Shaanxi and central Hubei. There were no serious earthquakes or large storms on the Chinese mainland last month, said the MCA. Statistics show that natural disasters affected 6.57 million hectares of farmland last month, leaving 126,700 hectares of land infertile, causing property losses of 430 million yuan (US$53.75 million). The government had to relocate 33,000 people. According to the China Meteorological Administration, rainfall of less than 20 millimeters was recorded last month in northeast and north China, the valleys of the Yellow, Huaihe and Yangtze rivers, as well as parts of central and south China. Rainfall had been low since mid-August in south China's Guangxi region, which saw an average rainfall of 201.2 millimeters from August 11 to October 31, nearly 50 percent down from the same period in previous years.
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