Heavy rain around China’s Yangtze river basin has left 128 people dead and scores missing, the media said Tuesday, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land this week.
Heavy rain around China’s Yangtze river basin has left 128 people dead and scores missing, the media said Tuesday, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land this week.
Flooding has forced some 1.3 million people to evacuate vast areas near China’s longest river and its connected waterways, the official Xinhua news agency cited the civil affairs ministry as saying.
Millions more are threatened by the continuing downpour, which began at the end of June and has already destroyed at least 41,000 homes, it said.
Water levels in Taihu Lake near Shanghai are at their highest level in decades, according to Beijing News, which said the area faces a serious risk of flooding if a typhoon hits Friday as forecast.
A farmer in eastern China broke down in tears as waters rose around his thousands of pigs, photos posted on state media showed.
Other images showed a sports stadium in the central province of Hubei turned into a “giant bathtub” by the rainfall.
Damage so far is estimated at over 38.16 billion yuan ($5.73 billion) and 42 people are missing, according to Xinhua. Flooding is common during the summer monsoon season in southern China.
