Rains bring misery to China mudslide town

CHINA: Fresh heavy rains on Thursday brought more misery to a town in northwest China devastated by mudslides that have already killed more than 1,100, with new floods leaving more people missing.

Thousands of soldiers and rescuers at the scene were battling to clean up roads blocked by cascades of mud and sludge unleashed by storms overnight, complicating the task of getting food, water and medicine to those in need.

So far, 1,117 people have been confirmed dead in the disaster in Zhouqu, a town nestled in the mountains of Gansu province. Another 627 residents went missing at the weekend, and three more disappeared overnight, state media said.

“The rain has had an impact on rescue work. It’s hindering the distribution of drinking water,” Han Huiping, a 25-year-old firefighter from a nearby town working on the relief effort, told AFP. “We’re worried.”

Soldiers and residents told AFP that heavy rains fell for about four hours overnight, turning one of the main streets in Zhouqu into a small river and flooding army tents on the roadside leading into the disaster zone.

Workers used diggers to clear the massive avalanche of mud and rocks that basically split the town in two at the weekend as rain fell early Thursday. The peaks surrouding the town were shrouded in dark clouds.

The shortest route into Zhouqu from the provincial capital Lanzhou, mainly being used by relief crews, was blocked, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Some shops in town had run out of drinking water well before noon, but new supplies appeared to be trickling in, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Zhouqu, China, Thursday, AFP