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Raymond Li

At least 31 people were left dead and 45 missing in a slew of natural disasters in Yunnan  and Guangxi  provinces since Friday.
Steady rain triggered massive mudslides in many parts of Yunnan, burying homes and cutting off rail and road links in the mountainous region.
Quoting the provincial civil affairs department, Xinhua reported yesterday  that 410,000  residents of at least 13 counties and districts in Yunnan had been affected by the mudslides,  with at least 22  killed. The Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture  had the worst mudslides, with 16 dead and 367,000 affected.
Quoting Zhang Xiaobo ,  deputy director of Chuxiong's transport  authority, Xinhua reported that  several roads leading to the towns hardest hit by the floods were cut off or severely damaged.
Mr Zhang said that at least two bridges along a key road in Shuangbai county had been  cut off because of  mudslides and that there were five cave-ins along the road.
Xinhua said more than 450 local and armed police officers,  and  army reserve units had been forced to travel on foot  to reach  stricken areas as many roads linking Chuxiong to other areas were  inaccessible by car.
In Guangxi, an abnormally heavy downpour since Friday triggered flash floods in many parts of the region, affecting more than 710,000 people.
Xinhua said 50 counties recorded rainfall of more than 100mm.  Among them, Ningming county saw  502mm  of rain.
An official with Pingguo county  government said it had recorded 204mm  of rain  by Sunday evening.
The official, surnamed  Zhao, said nine passengers including two children had gone missing when the two vehicles  in which they were travelling were swept off the road, prompting an extensive  search.  She said all nine passengers had drowned and their bodies had been recovered.
Initial statistics from the provincial government showed that 465 homes in 126 towns in Guangxi had been lost.
Ms Zhao put economic losses for Pingguo county at 200 million yuan (HK$227 million).
She said  flooding was extremely rare at  this time  as the monsoon   usually ended in the middle of October.
The official said the rain had almost stopped in Pingguo, but weather authorities had forecast mild to heavy rain to hit areas along and south of the Yangtze River.
Downpours were expected to  batter Yunnan, Sichuan , and Hunan  provinces, prompting a central government agency overseeing flood and drought measures to issue a level-three alert for possible flooding.



Mudslides, floods leave 31 dead, 45 missing in Yunnan, Guangxi