3 dead, 5 missing after floods in Sichuan province

Three people were found dead and five others are missing in the aftermath of rain-induced flooding in Pingwu county, Sichuan province, according to local authorities on Wednesday.

A total of 109 people trapped by the floods have been rescued and more than 700 people have been evacuated as of 8 am on Wednesday, said Xiang Bin, Pingwu's deputy Party chief.

At around 5 am on Tuesday, rivers in the county's Muzuo township broke their banks and flooding disrupted transportation, communications and cut electricity, damaging roads and washing away houses.

The Sichuan provincial government began emergency rescue operations and sent 178 rescue workers, 14 heavy excavators and loaders, six slag trucks and four ambulances to Pingwu.

At a flood prevention consultation conference on Tuesday evening, Li Guoying, minister of water resources, demanded all-out efforts to launch rescue work and ensure people's safety.

"Taking the flooding in Pingwu as an example, we need to comprehensively review the mountain flood disaster prevention process to identify weaknesses in monitoring and forecasting, threshold formulation, early warning issuance and personnel transfer," he said. "After the disaster, the corresponding mechanism shall be activated in time and accurate command opinions shall be put forward."

Chen Tingbin, who is responsible for a temporary shelter set up at Pingwu Vocational School, told chinanews.com: "About 220 residents affected by floods have been transferred to the county seat and we received 95 of them, while the rest chose to stay with their relatives and friends. We have prepared bread, milk, bottled water and daily necessities and organized 42 volunteers to provide services for those in need."

Liu Qiong, deputy Party secretary of Pingwu's Xinyi village, said they had been told to prepare for a coming heavy rainstorm and to prevent flood and related geological disasters. "We gave notice to each of the 460 residents in our village and most moved to safe places," she said.

"However, there were still some villagers who did not get out in time. One was found dead and another is missing," she said.

In Heilongjiang province, one person has been confirmed dead and seven remain missing in Chaoyangshan township of Wudalianchi city, after two flash floods caused by heavy rain on Wednesday, according to the local government.

The floods occurred on Tuesday evening, carrying away five people in the village of Dongfeng and four staff members from a State-owned enterprise who were on their way to a construction site nearby.

One of the staff members was saved. Teams have been sent to the sites for rescue work and to help transfer trapped villagers. As of noon Wednesday, rescue work is still underway.

China's National Meteorological Center on Tuesday renewed its blue alert for rainstorms in some parts of the country.

From 8 pm Tuesday to 8 pm Wednesday, rainstorms were expected in parts of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Sichuan. Heavy downpours of up to 130 millimeters may lash parts of these regions, the center said.

Some of the regions will also experience short-term heavy rainfall, with over 70 mm of hourly precipitation in places, accompanied by thunderstorms and gales.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.