More than 10 000 people fled their homes on Sunday after three days of incessant rain sparked massive floods in northern Malaysia. Also, flooding along China’s mighty Yellow River and one of its tributaries has forced 238 000 people to flee their homes in northern China, while another 11 000 people in east China must be relocated.
In Malaysia, most of those evacuated were from villages and towns in the northern states of Penang and Kedah, where flood waters as high as 5m submerged homes and disrupted train services, a spokesperson for a flood-monitoring centre said on condition of anonymity.
No casualties have been reported, though The Star newspaper said an eight-year-old boy was missing after he was last seen near a swollen river.
About 11 000 flood victims were staying in state-run relief centres on Sunday, with the figure expected to rise as heavy rains continue, the national news agency Bernama reported.
Tropical downpours that trigger flooding in Malaysia are common during the monsoon season, affecting tens of thousands of people every year, usually between November and February.
In China, about 300 000 people in Weinan city in north China’s Shaanxi province have been relocated as continuous heavy rain since September 27 has caused flooding along the Wei River, a tributary to the Yellow River, said a local anti-flood official.
The official said of the people moved, 105 000 people have been relocated in Weinan city’s smaller Huayin city, while another 133 000 people have left their homes in Hua county in Weinan city.
”The fifth flood crest on the Wei River this season has arrived a few days ago and has not passed yet, but it has stopped raining and the weather is sunny,” said another official, Ji Dan, with the Hua county flood control office.
”There are no deaths or injuries so far.”
The Huashang newspaper said on Sunday Huayin city, the most endangered in the area, had dispatched 45 000 people to patrol the river’s dikes each day.
About 500 labourers and 400 People’s Liberation Army soldiers have also been dispatched to repair problems on the dikes, it said.
Recent rains have left protective dikes saturated and in some places damaged after downpours at the end of August.
More than 20 000ha of farmland in the Huayin area have been flooded, the newspaper said.
Only weeks earlier, half a million of Shaanxi province’s inhabitants had to be evacuated from the river’s rising waters.
In east China’s Shandong province, dike breaks along the Yellow River have forced 11 000 people to be relocated in Dongming county. So far only 5 900 have been moved, an official with the county flood control command centre said.
The dikes broke on September 18, causing 247 square kilometers of farmland to be flooded, the official said.
The ruptured dikes still have not been fixed and water was steadily rushing out from a 200m-wide opening at a rate of 2 500 cubic meters per second, the Beijing Star Daily said.
The Xinhua news agency said on Saturday more than 86 000 people in the Shandong area are facing the threat of rising floodwaters due to dike breaches.
Water pouring through the burst dikes has surged through low-lying areas of eastern Shangdong province, endangering the lives of residents in 127 villages, Xinhua said.
It quoted local officials saying floodwaters in low-lying areas have risen 3,5m. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP