40 killed and 300,000 flee worsening floods, landslides

I just saw this article in The Straits Times.. This is about the flooding in Southern parts of China, I'll highlight the more important parts in red: "Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain killed more than 40 people in Southern China and forced the evacuation of more than 300,000 in a mountaineous region. In response to the rapidly worsening situation, China Premier Wen Jiabao called for an "all-out effort" to combat floods.The reported death toll from heavy rains and floods in China since last month is now more than 400. In the south-west Guangxi region, the worst hit area in recent days, around 333,000 people have been evacuated from flooding prone areas, reported Xinhuan news agency. 27 people were confirmed dead and 20 others missing there, the regional disaster relief headquarters said. About 100,000 residents in low-lying areas of Wuzhou were evacuated overnight, state media said. It was the industrial city's worst flooding in 100 years. Notices about the mass evacuation were posted on walls, warning sirens blared in the night and residents loaded up cars, trucks and carts with valuables and fled the area for higher ground. Along the Wuzhou River, 8.5m above its danger level, thousands worked to fortify its banks and dams with sandbags, state broadcaster CCTV said. The water reached as high as the thirdflood of buildings in some areas. In south-eastern Fujian province, floods and landslides killed 12 people and left five missing. In Guangdong province, just north of Hong Kong, 10 people were reportedly killed, while more than half a million were affected by the bad weather, the China News Service said. Rainstorms in eastern parts of Guangdong caused cave-ins on part of the Beijing-Kowloon railway line. Dozens of trains were forced to delay or turn back while repairs were made. In the South-western municipality of Chongqing, around 30,000 residents were evacuated after rising waters endangered peoples lives, Xinhua said. Thousands of people perish every year from floods, land-slides and mudflows in China, with millions left homeless. Officials said this year's floods could be worse than usual." adding on another paragraph from Reuters: "While the south is suffering a deluge, much of northern China is sweating through a heat wave, which has driven temperatures to nearly 40 C in the capital Beijing and convinced Chongqing to open air raid shelters to provide shade. " Comments: The green numbers are from Reuters..it was originally 24 and 23..but I just went to check reuters and the death toll went up to 27. About the blue highlighted sentence, the thing i'd want to say is that yes thousands of people perish every year from floods and all that in China..but the thing is..it might get worse this year because of Global Warming..this is the second time that one side of the country is raining heavily while the other side is so hot..it just happened in February this year...which is somewhat the nearing end of winter..It can't be that hot during winter right.. I've also just checked out the flood data of China for last year, 2004..In total..about 1,343 people were killed by the floods. In late july, the death toll was 439..It's only june now and it's alreadi 400..*sigh*..It also mentioned: "While the annual rains and floods usually strike hardest in rural areas, this year(2004) big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have felt the effects with both experiencing freak weather."The country has witnessed extreme weather recently in big cities, such as Beijing's unprecedented rainstorm earlier this month, which paralyzed local transportation," Wang was quoted as saying by China Daily."The rainstorm in Shanghai on July 12 can be said to be a very rare disaster which happens only once a century." The storm claimed seven lives. Look at the hailstorm that just happened recently in Beijing..it's rare. But one good thing..The death toll did decrease over the years..with the worst in 1998 at 4,000 to 1,900 in 2003 and continue to decrease to 1,343 in 2004.. Another point is that it said that in 2004 it was the worst flood in decades...but this year is century..look at the difference.And last year..there was also this pattern whereby "while central and southern China were awash with water, northern and eastern regions were suffering severe drought or scorching temperatures.The provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north are all parched with rain only starting to fall in July, several months later than normal, the newspaper said.Meanwhile, the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou in the east and Chongqing and Chengdu in the southwest are sizzling in temperatures of up to 38 degrees C. "(tenses were changed because it's already in the past) Anyway..if you see the last sentence..the maximum temperature was at least till 38 C..but this year it went up to 40 C. Looking back at the article from Straits Times..the last sentence said that officials said this year's flood could be worse than usual.See. Talking about the heatwave in Northern China..I'll post an article from The Straits Times later about the heatwave in India happening now. I'm off for brunch now..