City takes heavy blow from storms; 18 dead

Floods in Jilin city, Jilin province, have killed 18 people and left another 18 missing, while more than 110,000 people have been relocated, local authorities said on Monday.

Heavy rains in the central and eastern parts of the province on Thursday and Friday left much of it inundated. Jilin city was one of the most seriously affected.

Li Senshan was on duty on the fifth floor of the Yongji county museum at 7 pm on Thursday when he saw people taking shelter from the rain on the first floor of the building. He led four people upstairs to a safer area before he spotted a woman who also needed help.

"Soon after I let the woman in, floodwaters broke the windows and poured in. I was knocked down and soon felt faint," he was quoted as saying by New Culture, a local newspaper.

Li was found bleeding and bruised by medical workers, who provided first aid.

The flood left large amounts of mud in some areas of the city. About 10,000 square meters around a major shopping mall in Yongji, for example, was covered with mud 1 to 2 meters deep.

According to the operators of a local market, almost 100 truckloads of mud had been moved from the area as of 10:30 am Monday and another 400 truckloads were yet to be cleared.

More than 32,000 people were working across the city to remove mud and debris, repair bridges and reconnect households to telecommunications and electrical networks, the city government said on Monday.

The government has also dispatched at least 300 people to deal with hygiene and disease control. Almost 400 metric tons of lime for disinfection had been scattered as of Sunday afternoon and 72,000 disease control leaflets had been handed out to the public.

Contact the writers at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn