Bilis death toll reaches 530
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-23 08:27
China's death toll from Tropical Storm Bilis rose to 530 on Saturday, more
than a week after the storm hit, as officials in southern Guangdong province and
the Guangxi region reported an additional 48 deaths, state media said.
Guangdong's toll jumped to 106 after 43 additional deaths were reported from
the storm, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
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A man watch his land submerged in floods
caused by Typhoon Bilis in Ping He county, east China's Fujian province
July 16, 2006. Rainstorms and winds unleashed by Bilis whip Fujian
province Sunday, leaving 43 dead and 24 others missing. The directe
ecnomic losses hit 3 billion yuan (US$375 million). A total of 154 are
killed around south east China, according to state press.
[Newsphoto]
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In the Guangxi region, five more deaths were reported, bringing the toll
there to 35, it said.
Bilis slammed into China's southeastern coast on July 14, causing massive
flooding and triggering mudslides that swept away thousands of homes and forced
nearly 3 million to flee their hometowns.
Hardest hit was Hunan province, where 346 people have been confirmed dead and
another 89 were missing, according to Xinhua. Elsewhere, 43 were killed in the
coastal Fujian province.
Luo Xiwu, a Communist Party official from Zixing, was quoted by Xinhua as
saying Friday the disaster caused a "breakdown of communication and traffic
systems," which made it hard for authorities to collect information on deaths
and damage.
"The officials did not shift their work focus from rescue and relief to death
toll head count and damage investigation until rainstorms stopped and floods
receded," Luo said.
However, a journalist from state television apparently uncovered that
officials in Zixing, a village in Hunan, had dramatically underreported the
deaths there, Xinhua said. A death toll of 197 was later confirmed for Zixing
but Xinhua did not give its initial figure.
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