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17 killed in rainstorms
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FLOODS and landslides caused by torrential rains have killed 17 people and caused some 650 million yuan (US$78m) in damage over the past 10 days in Guangdong Province, officials said yesterday, adding the heaviest rainfalls in the region's history have not yet ended.
The Provincial Meteorological Bureau predicted more torrential rains over most of the province today, and warned people of further floods and landslides.
Heavy rains have hit Guangdong, which bore the brunt of the torrential rain, since June 2, causing floods that swept away thousands of houses and affected at least 1.76 million people.
The heavy rains had caused flooding in 22 counties and 180 townships in nine cities across the province.
Xinhua news agency said the recent rainfall had been the heaviest in the region's history, and had caused electricity blackouts and transportation and telecommunications breakdowns in several townships.
A flash flood in Zengcheng, a satellite city of the provincial capital of Guangzhou, stranded over 2,000 people on Monday morning, local officials said.
A spokesman for the flood prevention office in the city of Yangjiang said five people had been killed.
He said 237,000 people had been evacuated from their homes but that 13,000 people were still trapped by flood waters. A total of 9,335 houses were damaged, while another 2,955 collapsed.
A spokesman in the town of Yunfu said nine people had died, nine others were missing and four people were injured in the flooding.
An official in Haifeng said one person had died in the area, 510 houses had collapsed and 108 million yuan of damage had been caused.
Two adults and a four-year-old girl from a peasant family were killed when they were struck by lightning in the city of Fanyu on Monday. The tragedy struck when the family was having lunch and only the one-year-old son survives.
(SD-Agencies)
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