Floods in China Kill 1,000, Ruin 3 Million Houses
Some of the worst seasonal flooding on record has killed more than 1,000 people, the Chinese government said Friday. The Red Cross is launching a worldwide appeal for aid.
The flooding has also destroyed nearly 3 million houses, swamped 22 million acres of crops and caused more than $10 billion in economic losses across China since the spring, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a report by the New China News Agency.
News of the losses came as a team of Red Cross experts called for urgent shipments of food, medicine and water purification equipment for the flood victims.
The experts, who toured flooded areas of southern China, estimated that hundreds of thousands of families were left destitute.
The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are drafting a worldwide appeal for $4 million to buy food, medicine and water purification supplies. Aid would go to the five worst-hit areas--Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan and Sichuan.
Although seasonal floods afflict much of China every summer, rains began earlier and have been heavier than usual. In some Jiangxi counties, the floods were the worst on record, and in Fujian, waters had not been so high in 150 years.
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