GUANGZHOU, China, June 16, 2008
Dozens Die In China Floodwaters
Heavy Rains Inundate Southern Provinces, Destroy 45,000 Homes, Kill At Least 57 People
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Rescuers evacuate stranded students by rubber boat from the flooded Yangfan Primary School at Lincun Village at Tangxia Township in Dongguan, in south China's Guangdong province Saturday, June 14, 2008. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)
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A resident walks down the flooded steps in Shenzhen of south China's Guangdong province Sunday, June 15, 2008. Massive flooding across a broad stretch of southern China has killed almost 60 people and forced 1.27 million others from their homes, state media reported Monday. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)
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Photo Essay Rain Comes To Quake Zone Hampers work to drain quake-created lake that threatens to flood disaster victims.
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Photos Quake Ravages China Images of the destruction and efforts to rescue those trapped in the rubble.
People were forced to flee their homes across nine provinces, including Sichuan, still reeling from last month's earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people, the official Xinhua News Agency said. At least 57 people died and eight were missing, Xinhua reported.
Heavy rain is expected to pummel the southern region over the next few days, said a spokesman at the China Meteorological Administration who refused to give his name, which is customary.
Water levels on the swollen Wujiang River in Guangdong province rose to nearly 79 feet, far surpassing the "dangerous level" of 20 feet, he said.
Heavy rain in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces will further raise water levels downstream, especially in the coastal manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong, Xinhua reported. Most of those areas are expected to receive more heavy rain over the next 10 days.
The worst-hit province was Guangdong, where 20 people died and eight were missing, and nearly 5.8 million people in 17 cities were affected, Xinhua said.
Streets and houses along the Xijiang River in Guangdong were submerged in the worst flooding to hit the Pearl River Delta region in 50 years, the official China Daily newspaper said.
"A major flood is feared if rain continues," Huang Boqing, deputy director of the Guangdong flood control and drought relief headquarters, was quoted as saying.
Vegetable prices in Guangdong have risen by 70 percent in four cities including Guangzhou, the paper said.
Economic losses have reached $1.5 billion because of the floods, it said. More than 45,000 houses collapsed and 140,000 had been damaged.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
THESE TWO POST ARE FROM PEOPLE THAT DON''T EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW HARD THESE POOR PEOPLE ARE HAVING TO LIVE. THE CHINESE PEOPLE ARE JUST AT THE MERCY OF NATURE. THOSE PEOPLE ARE JUST LIKE THE ONES IN THE MID-WEST. THEY ARE LOSING WHAT LITTLE THEY HAVE. AND YOU TWO MAKING SNIDE REMARKS. IT IS DISTASTEFUL TO EVERYONE.
Exxon-Mobile will be right over to squeeze every last drop of oil out of these Chinese corpses, thereby reducing their emissions, using "technology".