Extreme rainfall and severe flooding in China led to a near doubling of economic losses from natural disasters in July compared to last year, the government said. UNN writes about this with reference to Reuters.
Details
China reportedly suffered $10.1 billion in economic losses from natural disasters last month, the highest amount of losses for July since 2021. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 88% of these losses were caused by heavy rains, floods, or their aftermath.
According to the ministry, almost 26.4 million people across China were affected by the disasters during the month, 328 of them died or went missing.
During the month, 1.1 million people were displaced, 12,000 houses collapsed and another 157,000 were damaged. About 2.42 million hectares of crops were also damaged.
Extremely heavy rains flooded vast areas such as the Sichuan, Yellow River, Huai and parts of the North China Plain, breaking rainfall records at 33 weather stations in Henan, Hunan and Shandong provinces.
Overflows of major rivers, which were slowly receding after the floods, also worsened the effects of the rains, the ministry said.
In the central province of Henan, one of the main commercial crop growing areas, more than 1.13 million hectares were affected, and some of the crops from the flooded fields were lost.
Recall
In July, heavy rain and flooding after Typhoon Hemi in Hunan province in southern China resulted in 4 deaths. Thousands of residents were evacuated, and large areas of crop land were flooded.