2 children missing, 700 trapped in S. China floods
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Two children are missing and about 700 others are trapped after schools were flooded in a severe storm in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Tuesday, the local government said Wednesday.
The missing students were from Xingbin District in Laibin City, a city government spokesman said. He did not reveal the names of the children or their school.
He said local government officials and residents were still searching for them.
In Xincheng County, about 700 students and staff in Beigeng Middle School have been trapped by floods caused by heavy rains that began pounding Guangxi Monday.
"The water flooded the campus around 8 p.m. yesterday. Now, students are having classes and sleeping in school buildings and dormitories on higher ground," principal Qin Shuhai told Xinhua.
Flood waters -- 1.5 meters deep -- has submerged the first floor of a four-storey building of the school.
Qin said the rain had cut power and water supplies to Beigeng Township. Bottled water and food in the school could accommodate the trapped students and staff for two more days.
"Vegetables have been sold out in our town. We will be short of rice, vegetables and water if the floods continue," he said.
Xie Dayan, the county head, said Beigeng was the worst-hit township in Xincheng. The rescuers had been using lifeboats to transfer people and would use them to send water and food to the trapped early Thursday.
In Laibin City, 65 schools were flooded in total. At the city's Experimental High School, 1,050 students and teachers were stranded for hours before they were evacuated by the fire service Tuesday.
"I woke up at 3 a.m. and saw the room was flooded," said Wei Yanting, a girl who lived in a first-floor dormitory. "We all climbed on to the top bunk beds and sat there watching the water cover the lower ones."
At daybreak, the students were relocated to the classroom building, a higher and safer place to wait to be rescued, said school principal Shi Fang.
Firemen evacuated the students with small boats in the waist-deep water. All were evacuated by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The flood water in Laibin's city center was still knee-deep Wednesday and flooded vehicles were seen on every street.
City authorities said it would take another day to drain the water.
By 11:30 a.m., rainstorms had ravaged 19 counties of seven cities, forced the evacuation of 66,473 people and caused direct economic losses of 600 million yuan (87.84 million U.S.dollars).
The rainstorms had damaged 3,260 houses and 103,450 hectares of crops, according to Guangxi's Civil Affairs Department.
