Regional floods test response abilities

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Regional floods test response abilities

(Xinhua) 08:46, August 22, 2013

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Fear remains whenever Li Haiqing talks about a flood which engulfed his village five days ago, although it caused no casualties thanks to a swift evacuation.

"The village has a population of 1,500. Almost all of them were evacuated before the flood came. Some 30 people who refused to leave rushed to the roofs of their homes for shelter and luckily escaped the disaster," said Li, head of Mianyang village committee in Hongtoushan Township, Qingyuan Manchu Autonomous County, one of the areas worst hit by the flood disaster on Aug. 16.

"At 4 p.m. on that day, village officials told us to leave before the rainstorm," said Li. The quick evacuation proved vital as a rising death toll was reported in other areas.

The worst flood in decades has left 63 dead and 101 people missing in Fushun City, northeast China's Liaoning Province, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said Wednesday. The province relocated 199,000 people from Aug. 15 to 17.

President Xi Jinping has demanded all-out efforts to put people's lives first in combatting the floods. Premier Li Keqiang has also urged local authorities to relocate people and help them during the post-flood reconstruction.

Currently, tens of thousands of people are struggling to restore devastated power and communication grids as well as roads in Fushun, in addition to transporting food, clothes and tents to the affected areas.

Qingyuan, Fushun and Xinbin counties are under the jurisdiction of Fushun City. The three counties suffered most in the flood disaster.

Yet the number of casualties prompts reflections on disaster warning and prevention mechanisms.

Thirty people died and 58 remained missing in Nankouqian Village, in Qingyuan County. Villager Li Chengliang's daughter and two nieces were among the missing. They were swept away by the flood.

"No one told us about the rainstorm. If we knew the information in advance, would we stay at home?" Li said he did not receive any evacuation notice before the flood.

Beikouqian Village, which neighbors Nankouqian, also reported no casualties. At 4 p.m. on Aug. 16, village cadres told each household that floods were coming and urged a quick evacuation, said Guo Junxiang, a villager in Beikouqian.

"Some were reluctant to leave, but were pulled out by us," said Jiang Guili, the village Communist Party head.

Jiang said they immediately organized the evacuation after receiving a flood warning from higher authorities.

In south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, sudden floodwater discharged from a hydroelectric station reservoir trapped several thousand people on Monday.

Some villagers complained they received text messages about the Xiaoliujia reservoir discharging only two hours after it already occurred.

The country's flood control, meteorological and civil affairs authorities have their own response or warning systems to extreme weather or natural disasters. The country's quick mobilization and deployment of personnel, including soldiers, police and officials, are key to disaster prevention and reduction.

Yet flood control capabilities and relief goods reserves at local level differ from place to place. A lack of funds is partly to blame for the inadequacy.

In flood-hit Xunke County of Heilongjiang Province, 4,000 people have joined the flood control efforts.

The dams of most of the 75-km section in Xunke of the swollen Heilong River was built in the 1970s with basic abilities to prevent floods, and lacked maintenance for years, said Duan Yingchun, deputy head of the Xunke county government.

Floods of three major rivers in Heilongjiang Province have caused 49 stretches of river embankments to have reported 1,799 locations in danger, said the provincial flood control headquarters.

Currently, more than 70,000 people have been mobilized to monitor and protect embankments in Heilongjiang as all its major rivers have exceeded their warning water levels.P Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday stressed putting people's lives first, and strengthening the monitoring and warning of the flood and disaster situation.

He also demanded flood control and disaster relief work be carried out in a scientific and orderly way and basic living of the affected masses be arranged properly.