China's storm death toll now at 482
China’s death toll from tropical storm Bilis more than doubled to 482 today after a hard-hit province reported a sharp rise in fatalities, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Authorities in inland Hunan province said 346 people died in floods triggered by Bilis, while 89 others were missing, according to Xinhua. The province had previously reported 92 deaths.
Bilis slammed into China’s south-eastern coast on July 14 and churned inland, setting off flooding and landslides and forcing nearly 3 million people to flee their homes, according to the government.
The higher death toll in Hunan included 197 deaths in the village of Zixing, Xinhua said. It said a reporter from state television found that the Zixing government apparently under-reported the number of deaths.
Chinese officials are frequently accused of hiding accident deaths and other unfavourable information.
Also today, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a warning to local authorities that they would be punished if they failed to report disasters accurately.
The death toll in crowded Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong, rose Friday by 19 to 63, while the toll in neighbouring Guangxi province rose by one to 30, Xinhua said. It said there were 43 deaths in coastal Fujian province.
Losses in Guangdong totalled 9 billion yuan (£500million), the report said.
Flood waters washed away roads, cut power supplies and submerged part of China’s main north-south railway line in a path of destruction that stretched across southern China.
Storm-ravaged areas faced new problems this week as a heatwave swept the region, with temperatures in Fujian on Thursday rising to 38 degrees centigrade, Xinhua said.
Separately, Xinhua said flash floods struck a county in China’s mountainous south-west today, killing at least eight people and leaving 27 others missing.
The floods swept through a town in Mengzi County in Yunnan province at about 3am local time yesterday, Xinhua said.
Work sheds beside an expressway that was under construction were swept away, the report said.
