Over 200 Dead, 1.5 Million Evacuated After Catastrophic Flooding Hits China, Pakistan

Associated Press
Published: July 4,2016
Catastrophic floods have taken over 200 lives in China and Pakistan this weekend after days of heavy rain.
In China, 186 have been killed and another 45 people have been reported missing by the nation's flood and drought relief headquarters.
Nearly 1.5 million people have been evacuated or are in need of aid in Hubei. Almost 9,000 houses have collapsed or are seriously damaged and more than 2,700 square miles of crops - an area nearly six times the size of Los Angeles - have been affected, causing direct economic losses of 50.6 billion yuan ($7.6 billion), the provincial civil affairs department said.
State television on Saturday showed people using boats to navigate flooded streets in eastern Anhui province. Anhui's civil affairs department said 18 people have died and four are missing due to heavy rain since June 18. Vice Premier Wang Yang warned last month that there was a high possibility of floods in the Yangtze River and Huai River basins this year, which equate to a large swath of China's southern, central and eastern areas.
About 18 inches of rain fell in Macheng, China, in the four days ending 8 a.m. local time on Monday, said weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce.
(MORE: China Tornado Kills 98, Injures 800)
In Pakistan, heavy monsoon rains and flash floods have claimed at least 30 lives and washed away a mosque and several houses in Ursoon, an area of Chitral.
The mayor of Chitral district, Maghfirat Shah said the flash flooding hit as people were offering up special Ramadan prayers at the mosque. Dozens of worshippers were swept away in the floodwaters, which destroyed the mosque and damaged several nearby houses and a security post.
The bad weather hampered rescue efforts, but by morning most of the bodies had been recovered and one person had been rescued, Shah said. A spokesman for the disaster management authority, Yousuf Zia, said search crews recovered the bodies of seven people. He said 30 people were missing and believed dead. Authorities called for helicopters to join the rescue and relief operation because nearby roads had been washed away, Zia said, adding that in areas where the weather had cleared teams were already distributing essential goods.
The provincial chief minister, Pervez Khattak, expressed his grief over the tragedy and announced that the families would receive compensation of $300 for each loss of life. He said that he had given orders for disaster management officials to quickly provide the affected communities with tents, food, medicine and other relief goods.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.