ACTING IN ADVANCE: Soldiers ferry sandstones to the bank of the Bailong River in Zhouqu on August 16 to prevent further floods in the coming days (NIE JIANJIANG)

More disasters

China's National Disaster Reduction Commission issued an urgent circular on August 16, ordering the civil affairs authorities across the country to step up measures to prevent and control floods and other rain-triggered disasters.

The civil affairs authorities must closely monitor the development of torrential rains and guard against flooding and other rain-triggered disasters, it said.

Further, it ordered the evacuation and relocation of residents in high-risk areas prone to flooding, landslides and mudslides, and said that disaster relief materials and temporary shelters must be in place well in advance.

It also asked civil affairs authorities to increase publicity of disaster-related information and survival tips.

Floods and other rain-triggered disasters have left more than 2,300 people dead and 1,200 missing nationwide this year.

The Gansu provincial meteorological bureau and land and resources bureau issued a level-IV warning for possible geological disasters in the area, according to local disaster relief headquarters.

Not far from Zhouqu, torrential rain left 36 people dead and 23 missing in Longnan as of August 16, provincial authorities said in a statement on August 17.

As of 4 p.m. on August 16, secondary disasters triggered by rain, including mudslides and landslides, had injured 295 people.

They caused 6,090 houses to collapse and damaged another 15,223.

The rain prompted the evacuation of 122,835 Longnan residents to emergency shelters, the statement said.

In Gansu's neighboring province of Sichuan, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 13 people and left another 59 missing as of August 15.

Nearly 500,000 people are affected and more than 20,000 have been evacuated in the province, according to the emergency response office of the Sichuan Provincial Government.

The first landslide struck Qingping Township in Mianzhu on August 12 after heavy rain.

The rainfall amounted to 220 millimeters within two hours, and mudslides caused by the heavy rain left at least seven people dead and 500 others trapped in rural mountainous areas, according to Luo Yingguang, an information official with the city.

The downpour, which struck Dujiangyan, a city battered by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12, 2008, caused a landslide that killed one villager and stranded more than 5,000 people in the city's mountainous Longchi Town and Hongkou Township.

The massive mudslide that hit Wenchuan County on August 14 had killed 15 people and injured nine others by August 16, local authorities said on August 17.

A 200-meter section of National Highway 213, the only highway linking Wenchuan to the provincial capital Chengdu, was inundated with water 4 meters deep.

According to Chen Kefu, Deputy Director of the Department of Civil Affairs of Sichuan Province, the landslides damaged some 24,000 homes and 17,000 hectares of crops. Direct economic losses were about 1 billion yuan ($146.41 million).