Northeastern China Suffers Serious Floods

Widespread floods in northeast China have left more than 800,000 people homeless in the last two months and inflicted more than $1.5 billion worth of damage, the China Daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

Earlier reports said at least 80 people have been killed since July by typhoons, hailstorms and floods in the worst affected provinces of Jilin and Liaoning.

China Daily quoted Jilin officials as saying two months of floods in the region have swept away 400,000 houses, left 800,000 people homeless and destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. In neighboring Liaoning province, floods last month inflicted more serious economic damage than in 1985 when the region suffered its worst flooding in 26 years. But this year’s floods killed only 30 people compared with last year’s death toll of 200.