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Death toll in flood-hit south China rises to 63

By Liang Qiwen (Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-17 06:44

Rainstorms and floods have killed 63 people, with 13 others missing in nine provinces and region in south China as of Monday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA).

Houses are submerged in flood waters after days of heavy rains in the city of Yizhou, Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 16, 2008. [Xinhua]

A total of 1.66 million people have been evacuated, the ministry said.

The disaster knocked down 67,000 houses, damaged crops on 1.02 million hectares of farms and caused a direct economic loss of 14.45 billion yuan (2.06 billion U.S. dollars).

Flood waters have turned a suburb of Foshan, Guangdong Province, into a sea. Till Monday, 20 people had been killed and 5.76 million affected by rain and floods in the province. [China Daily]

Rainstorms and floods have ravaged the provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guizhou and Yunnan and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region since June 6. Among them, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi were worst-hit, the ministry said.

The MCA and the Ministry of Finance allocated 95 million yuan to Guangxi and Jiangxi as a disaster relief fund Tuesday to help support daily life of people in flood-hit areas.

A total of 3,000 tents have been sent to Guangxi, according to the MCA.