China: Floods - May 1997
From the early morning of 8 May to 9 May 1997, heavy rains poured down in Guangzhou, Qingyuan, Heyuan, and Yunfu of Guangdong Province. In the opinion of scientists, this type of rainfall only occurs every 500 years. The intensive rainfall led to severe mountain floods in some areas, water level of the rivers were fast increasing, villages and farmland were inundated and houses collapsed. According to incomplete statistics, 22 counties/cities with a population of 1.36 million were affected, 110 people died and 21 are missing, 1,354 people were injured, 177 villages were inundated, and 77,000 people had to be evacuated. 19,000 housing units collapsed and 56,000 were damaged. (UN DHA, 15 May 1997)
The floodwaters that plague China every year have begun to spread across its southern and eastern regions as the monsoon made its dramatic seasonal debut in Hong Kong on 1 July. At least 12 provinces are now experiencing flooding although waters have not reached disaster proportions in all as of yet. Most severely affected are those in the Pearl River catchment area, including its tributaries the Xijiang and Beijiang Rivers. The affected provinces include Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejing, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Jiangxi. More than 70 people have already died in the flooding. Over 14 million people are currently affected by the floods through death, injury, destruction to homes, inundation of farmland, closure of factories and damage to infrastructure. Approximately 1,000 people had to be evacuated from the Beijing-Kowloon passenger train when a landslide blocked its passage. As floodwaters rose, rail travel between Shanghai and Fujian Province was suspended due to water-covered tracks and weakened trestles. (IFRC, 14 Jul 1997)