Flood, Landslide Toll Rises in Yunnan
People's Daily Online. August 18, 2002.
A week of torrential rain has caused a series of floods and landslides in southwest China's Yunnan Province, leaving 36 dead and many missing.
Early Saturday morning, work huts at a construction site of the Xiaowan Hydropower Station under construction on the Lanchang River in Yunnan were demolished by a sudden landslide. Five workers have so far been confirmed dead with 10 missing and 11 injured.
Rescue workers are clearing debris, and have set up warning signs in dangerous sites to avoid further landslides at the construction site.
Since Aug. 14, Xinping County in Yunnan has had an unprecedented number of landslides. They have killed 31 people, left 36 missing and cut a 50-meter wide chasm on the mountain side.
"I had never seen such a terrible natural disaster in my life,"said a 70-year-old woman surnamed Han, whose 24-year-old granddaughter was killed while drawing water from a well in her yard.
Many village houses were washed away by the floods. Villagers said that there is little chance of survival for the missing people.
Disaster relief trucks are shuttling backwards and forwards in the rain along muddy roads leading to the affected areas.
The county has received 1.4 million yuan in donation for disaster relief.
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