Nature Angry About Beijing Olympics?
China competes with Venice
Residents row boats along a flooded street in the township of Yuecheng in Deqing county, west of Guangdong Province, June 18, 2008. REUTERS/Aly Song. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
Here’s what the China “Frankenstein” looks like:
Hundreds of troops, police and rescue workers are shoring up dams which might burst under torrential rain that has already flooded an area of about 24,000 square kilometers, including homes, businesses and farmlands.
The damage:
- Floods have killed about 180 people so far in Guangdong
- Another 60 people are missing
- More rain is expected in the annual flood season
- Six reservoirs are in “danger of bursting” in southern Guangxi region
- About 1.7 million people have been evacuated in nine southern provinces since the start of the flood season earlier this month.
- Floodwater has collapsed about 150,000 homes,
- About 2.4 million hectares (~ 6 million acres) of crops have been damaged or destroyed
- The mounting economic losses already exceed $4 billion
All of this comes in addition to the soaring food prices the have already plagued China, record snowstorms last winter and, of course, the Sichuan earthquake which killed about 70,000 people and left five million homeless. Serious danger of epidemics in the soaring summer temperatures looms.
Droughts, floods and other human-enhanced disasters throughout China are nothing new, of course, but their frequency and intensity this year are alarming experts.
The biggest disaster yet to strike China in 2008 may prove to be a major drought causing water shortages throughout the country later in the summer.
It’s as if nature is mad at China: Drop the Olympics, or have your annual quota of H2O now!
Related Links:
- China rushes to fix dams as 9,000 sq miles flooded
- China earthquake: Teacher left students behind as he ran to safety
- Why Didn’t China Prevent the Loss of 86,000 Lives?
- The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
- Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
- How Many More Survivors?
- Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
- Why Was the Girl Removed from Family?
- China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
- Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
- Almost five million left homeless, China says
- Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
- Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools
More Links:
- China “quake lake” fears force new evacuation
- Swelling China lakes a danger 2 weeks after quake
- Big aftershock causes more misery in China
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