I grew up in hurricane country. I survived Camile in 1969 and I was actually swept away in the 21 foot tidal surge and 210 MPH sustained winds--the worst storm to ever hit North America. But, damn, what's happening in Southwest China is a tragedy and it doesn't appear that it's going to get better any time soon.
A week of torrential rains has claimed 102 lives in Sichuan province, and another 75 in neighbouring Chongqing. A total of 50 people are missing in the two areas, located about 1,400 kilometres southwest of Beijing. The disasters have affected about 11 million people, with hundreds of thousands evacuated and about 10,000 sick or injured in Sichuan alone.
With more than 300,000 homes damaged, direct losses to crops and the local economy were estimated at 3.9 billion yuan ($610,000 Cdn).
Rain stopped over much of the region on Wednesday, allowing authorities to disinfect towns and residents to pick through their sodden belongings.
Streets were strewn with garbage, furniture and household items, and mudslides blocked mountain roads. Residents jostled to fill plastic pails with clean water being pumped from fire trucks, while utility workers went from building to building restoring electricity.
However, three new storms have been forecast for this month. A cold front expected on Sunday will likely result in more rain, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
"Local civilians are urged to speed up rescue efforts and take preparations for the expected rains," Xinhua said.
The storms have swollen the mighty Yangtze River, forcing the suspension of navigation through the Three Gorges Dam for the first time since it started operating last year.
The dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has been touted by authorities as a means of stemming disastrous flooding along the lower sections of the Yangtze.
Cities downstream, however, were ordered to shore up embankments as Dongting Lake, China's second largest, rose two metres above normal levels. The lake is part of a network of waterways in central China that both feed into and are fed by the Yangtze.
Elsewhere in China, the death toll from a mudslide in Yunnan province, south of Sichuan, has risen to eight. Continuous heavy rains in the past week caused the mudslide, which also damaged roads.
