Widespread mudslides triggered by storms since Monday have killed at least eight people, left 30 missing and made more than 6,000 homeless in Beichuan , Sichuan province . The county was one of the worst-hit in the May earthquake that took more than 80,000 lives. More than 300 people were injured and some 1,100 houses collapsed in the mudslides. Many of the houses were wooden shelters temporarily erected for quake victims, Xinhua quoted officials from the Beichuan county reconstruction office as saying yesterday. By 8pm, eight people had been confirmed dead, most of them killed in landslides across the Qiang minority-populated county, Xinhuanet reported. Most of the more than 6,000 homeless victims required emergency help. Not only had their homes in remote regions been destroyed, but they lacked food and clothing, state media reported. The road connecting the towns of Leigu and Yongan was reportedly blocked by a mudslide, stranding more than 200 people. Downtown areas of Beichuan town, which had almost been reduced to rubble in May, were covered with debris. Mud and sand had piled up on the playground at Beichuan Middle School, where more than 1,300 students were killed in the quake, China News Service said. Tan Li, the Communist Party secretary of Mianyang , the city that oversees Beichuan, visited the hardest-hit towns of Leigu and Qushan in the afternoon to direct the relief and rescue efforts. Xi Zengquan , a Leigu resident, said the downpours were so heavy and the wind so strong that no one dared to go out. 'You can hardly stand in the rainstorms.' The water level of the Tangjiashan 'quake lake', the largest of its kind, rose 5 metres by noon and continued to rise 22cm per hour. The torrential rains also caused a landslide that blocked a canal dug to drain the water. The Sichuan meteorological department issued an orange rainstorm alert, the second highest, yesterday morning. Torrential rains were forecast for cities including Mianyang, Guangyuan , Deyang and Chengdu . The heavy rains were expected to ease today.
