China intensifies emergency rescue in rain-hit Henan

BEIJING -- China has shored up efforts in emergency rescue and disaster relief in the central province of Henan, where record rainstorms wreaked havoc.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Emergency Management deployed another team of 510 firefighters with expertise in water rescue to the flood-hit regions from five provinces and cities, together with 64 remote water supply trucks and 50 rubber boats.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the MEM coordinated with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration and dispatched flood control supplies such as assault boats, life jackets, electric generators and pumps to Henan to support local flood control and emergency rescue work.

The headquarters also stressed making every effort in flood control, emergency rescue and disaster relief to effectively ensure people's safety and property.

When chairing a meeting of the headquarters Thursday, Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong, who heads the headquarters, urged the headquarters and local flood control authorities to make further preparations in preventing major floods and implementing rescue and disaster relief work to minimize casualties and losses.

In Henan and other regions severely stricken by floods, more work should be done to continue all-out rescue, resettle people affected and restore the order of life and production, Wang said, stressing forecasting severe weather in time, strengthening secondary disasters prevention and enhancing safety control of production, road traffic and tourist attractions.

The headquarters also dispatched a work team to the city of Xinxiang on Thursday, parts of which suffered heavy rainstorms. The team worked with local authorities to dispatch assault boats and bridges to rescue local villagers and visited the city of Dengfeng to inspect damages to houses and infrastructure and the work of personnel transfer and resettlement.

It urged relevant local authorities to speed up water draining, solve the problem of communication and transportation disruptions and allocate and distribute materials in flood-stricken areas, to ensure the basic livelihood of people affected by the disaster.