3-Pound Hailstones Reported; 80,000 Homes Lost : Violent Storms Kill 100, Injure 600 in China

A series of violent hailstorms and hurricanes this week killed 100 people, injured 600 more and destroyed as many as 80,000 homes in Sichuan province, one of China’s principal agricultural areas, authorities reported today.

The storms flooded towns, uprooted trees and utility poles and left some areas without power or communications.

The region near Chongqing (once known as Chungking), a metropolitan area on the Yangtze River with more than 16 million people, was the most seriously affected.

Badly damaged cities included Yongchuan, Dazu and Rongchang.

5 Inches in 3 Hours

In one county in the Chongqing area, more than five inches of rain fell during a three-hour period just after midnight Tuesday, according to the official newspaper China Daily.

It said boats were used to rescue residents of the town.

“The hail itself lasted for 50 minutes,” a spokesman for Chongqing’s housing and land bureau told The Times.

“The biggest of the hailstones weighed 1.5 kilograms (more than three pounds).”

The bad weather could jeopardize China’s efforts to step up grain production this year.

In 1985, China’s grain harvest dropped for the first time in half a decade.

Authorities blamed the decline in part on a series of unusual storms and floods in northeast China.

The regime has launched an intense campaign to step up rice and wheat production throughout the nation this year.

Newspaper reports said the storms damaged at least 6,600 hectares (about 16,000 acres) of spring crops.

But the Chongqing official told The Times that more than 75,000 acres of crops were damaged, and that in addition 420,000 fruit trees were destroyed.

Local officials in Sichuan were struggling to organize relief efforts for victims of the storms.

Authorities said hospitals, epidemic prevention stations and blood banks were all taking part in the work, and that four special rescue teams have been sent to the area.

Factories Closed

Factories, schools and shops were shut in some areas.

According to the China Daily, the Chongqing municipality is offering money, fertilizer, timber, steel, grain, gas, coal and medicine to victims of the storm.

Last summer, the Chongqing area was afflicted by drought so severe that trees and bamboo died and crops such as rice and sorghum withered in the fields.

The prolonged drought had lasted until the rain and winds began in the area on May 12.

The series of storms and floods in northeast China last August and September equaled the worst natural disaster in China since 1978.

In all, more than 2,400 people died and more than 3 million acres of farmland were damaged through natural disasters in China last year.