Water level rising in Chinese rivers, further flooding expected

June 19, 2008 Further rain has continued to fall across southern China after the country was devastated by floods earlier this week. 176 people have been confirmed to have died as a result of the flooding, and around 50 more are officially missing. Xinhua, the state news agency in China, has reported that the flooding in the Pearl River Delta was the worst in the area for over fifty years.

The Chinese government says it evacuated 111,476 in the Sichuan Province. In Wenchuan County, 72,000 were relocated. Over the past week some 1.3 million people have reportedly fled their homes.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) issued a warning on the situation before the first wave of flooding. "Faced with the increasingly severe rain and flood situation, at 16 o’clock of June 12, Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters of Guangxi urgently started level 2 flood control emergency response and required the relevant departments and places to prepare immediately so as to ensure the work of flood control and drought relief," the CMA said in a statement released late last week.