China has today allocated tens of millions of yuan in additional funds to support regions affected by storms and landslides, after extreme weather phenomena have caused thousands of displaced people to die.
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O Central government made available 50 million yuan (€6.4 million) to restore roads, schools and other infrastructure in Hubei Province (center), as well as another 20 million yuan (€2.5 million) to rebuild housing and relocate the population, the state press reported.
On Monday night, violent tornado storms, a rare phenomenon in China, caused 11 deaths and hundreds of wounded in that province.
Beijing also allocated 30 million yuan (EUR 3.8 million) to the province of Gansu (northwest), where a landslide buried 21 forest workers.
These amounts are added to the 100 million yuan (almost 13 million euros) previously announced to repair schools, hospitals, transport infrastructure and other public equipment in the autonomous region of Guangxi (south), hit by flooding after heavy rains associated with a tropical storm.
In Guangxi, the passage of the tropical storm Maysak caused the rupture or transshipment of reservoirs, flooding localities and leaving isolated inhabitants.
According to the regional authorities, six people died, some 130 thousand were removed and more than 8,000 operatives, supported by some 5,700 vessels, participate in relief operations.
On social networks, requests for help are multiplied with videos from flooded areas.
Some local communication agencies have advanced, without official confirmation, that hundreds of snakes have escaped farms after being dragged by the floods. Beijing News also reported the death of a woman, allegedly after being bitten by a snake.
The authorities of Guangxi today acknowledged in a statement that “snakes appeared in some flooded areas” after several villages in the municipality of Hengzhou had been submerged, without specifying the origin of the animals.
The same statement stated that a local hospital reinforced the reserves of anti-acid serum to respond to possible cases of bites.
The National Meteorological Center has indicated that Guangxi has recorded intense rain since Saturday, with accumulated precipitation between 100 and 400 mm in some areas and over 900 mm in the most affected areas.
Meanwhile, typhoon Bavi is expected to reach southeast China during the weekend. In Taiwan, some farmers rushed the rice harvest before the storm, which was heading west-northwest over the Philippine Sea.
Bad weather has also affected other Asian countries. In southeast Bangladesh landslides caused by monsoon rains killed several Rohingya refugees, including five children. In neighboring India, intense rains have also caused more than a dozen deaths in the last days.