Exceptionally bad floods claimed 1,203 lives and destroyed a
million homes in China last year, according to the National
Disaster Reduction Center.
The abnormal climate and worse than usual natural disasters
resulted in floods that also affected 180 million people and 12
million hectares of farmland.
The Huai River experienced the worst flooding since 1954, while
tributaries of the Yangtze, Huang and Pearl rivers were also hit by
severe floods.
The center said the joint efforts of officials and thousands of
rescue workers had resulted in less than half of the flooding
fatalities of an average year, while losses were 20 percent, or
more than 200 billion yuan (27.67 billion U.S.dollars), down.
The center also attributed the reduction in casualties and
losses to the fact that the government had established early
warning systems and coordinated rescue operations.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2008)