Four people were killed and eight others are missing in flash
floods and mud-rock flows inflicted by rainstorms that hit
northwest China's Shaanxi Province, said sources with the
provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters on
Friday.
At least 311 houses collapsed, 684.2 hectares of crops were
spoiled and 164 roads were cut off in the torrential rains that
started in the south of Shaanxi on Wednesday.
The rains severed water and power supply and cut the No. 108
national highway in the worst-hit Foping County 212 kilometers from
provincial capital Xi'an. The downpours also forced evacuation of
more than 800 people in the nearby Ningshan County, according to
local sources.
Floods have claimed 1,138 lives in China so far this year,
Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei told a news conference
Tuesday. An additional 210 people were missing.
(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2007)