One more person has been confirmed dead after hailstorms ravaged
southern parts of China on Sunday and Monday, bringing the death
toll to 14.
The provincial disaster relief office of southwestern Sichuan said Tuesday in a circular that a
62-year-old man died in a flood that followed the hailstorm and
another went missing on Sunday in Dazhou.
The hailstorms affected people, damaged crops and destroyed
houses in Dazhou, a city in east Sichuan. Direct economic losses
stood at 22 million yuan, according to the office.
Forty villages in neighboring Bazhong were also affected by the
hailstorms.
Another 28,000 people in Guang'an City were affected and seven
electricity facilities destroyed after hailstones and strong wind
stuck on Sunday afternoon.
The hailstorms were caused a cold spell that lowered the highest
temperatures by between 14-18 Celsius degree in various parts of
Sichuan.
Technicians were sent by the Dazhou government to the worst-hit
areas to help farmers grow crops. The Dazhou government also
allocated three million yuan for disaster relief.
Hailstorms have ravaged southern parts of China since Sunday,
killing 13 people in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing and one in Sichuan, closing an
expressway and destroying crops on at least 120,000 hectares of
farmland.
Seven people were killed and one was injured when a bus was
caught up in a landslide caused by hailstorms in mountainous
Chongqing on Monday. The other six were killed by falling roofs and
lightning on Sunday and Monday, according to the Chongqing office
of disaster relief.
Also on Sunday, hail "the size of eggs" pelted six counties in
Fujian Province, on the southeast China
seaboard, punching holes in thousands of homes.
The disaster relief office of Fujian told Xinhua on Tuesday that
99,200 people were affected and the economic losses stood at 115
million yuan in Fujian.
The office said 163 houses collapsed and 55,400 others damaged
during the hailstorm, which also affected crops on 6,300 hectares
of farmland.
In Shenghuang Town of Minqing County, one of the worst hit areas
in Fujian, more than 10,000 residents from 4,000 households were
affected. The storm caused direct economic losses of 11.7 million
yuan.
Hail also destroyed power supply facilities in Lingkou, a
village in northern Fujian.
The Fujian province department of civil affairs on Tuesday
dispatched 100 tents and 500 quilts to Minqing to help local
people.
Residents in shabby houses were relocated after the hailstorm.
So far there have been no reports of casualties in Fujian.
However, the hailstorms also eased the lasting drought in
southwest China.
The hailstorms ended water shortages of 110,000 people and
81,000 heads of livestock in Chongqing, but 1.61 million people and
1.23 million heads of livestock are still short of drinking
water.
Meteorologists in Sichuan, where more than 5 million people had
been short of drinking water, said that the hailstorms eased
drought but warned of damages on crops.
(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2007)