Death toll from central China downpours rises to 50: state media

Members of a rescue team walk to a flood-affected area in Zixing, in central China’s Hunan province. (File/AFP)

• The downpours late July were triggered by Typhoon Gaemi, which moved on from the Philippines and Taiwan to make landfall in China, hitting Hunan province hard

BEIJING: At least 50 people were confirmed dead on Monday following search and rescue efforts after torrential rain lashed central China in late July, state media said.
Fifteen others remained missing in Zixing city in China’s Hunan Province, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
“All administrative villages in the disaster-stricken areas of Zixing City have preliminarily achieved access to roads, electricity, communication, and water,” CCTV said.
“The affected residents have been properly resettled, and post-disaster reconstruction is under way.”
The downpours late July were triggered by Typhoon Gaemi, which moved on from the Philippines and Taiwan to make landfall in China, hitting hilly, landlocked Hunan province particularly hard.
Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China last month.
China has endured a summer of extreme weather, with heavy rains across the east and south, and much of the north sweltering in successive heat waves.
Heavy rain in the northern province of Shaanxi last month caused a highway bridge to collapse, killing at least 38 people.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.