Flooding and landslide death toll reaches 115 as Qujiang River levels peak, Southwest China's Sichuan Province - 22nd Sept 2011

FLOODS and rain-related disasters have left 115 people dead and 36 missing in nine of -China's provincial-level regions up to yesterday, according to the National Disaster Reduction Commission.

The highest flood peak in the history of the Qujiang River passed through southwest China's Sichuan Province yesterday, leaving 25 dead and 14 missing, according to local authorities. Flooding has caused great damage in Sichuan. More than 83,000 houses have collapsed.

Heavy downpours, floods and landslides have affected more than 6 million people in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Chongqing, Hubei, Shandong, Shanxi, Gansu and Qinghai, according to the commission. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has sent 22,000 tents, 70,000 cotton quilts and 35,000 items of clothing to the affected regions, the commission said.

The commission and the ministry yesterday jointly launched an emergency response plan to deal with flooding in central China's Hubei Province. Local authorities said that flooding in the region has affected 703,500 people since last Thursday.

Yesterday, the year's highest flood peaks on the Yangtze and Jialing rivers caused extensive flooding in Chonqing and pushed water levels up at the Three Gorges Dam by 2 meters.

On the Jialing River, a major tributary of the Yangtze, the peak reached Changtianmen dock in downtown Chongqing, southwest China, around 4am, taking the water level to nearly 180m for six hours or more. Read More