People use a board to block water at the door of a shop on the flooded Weiming Road in Cangzhou City, north China’s Hebei Province, July 5, 2008. Heavy rainfall hit Cangzhou on Saturday. (Xinhua/Fu Xinchun)

    BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) — Heavy rainstorms that swept through most parts of China since Tuesday have left at least 12 dead, seven missing and about 3 million affected.

    The casualties were reported after the rainstorms and flooding killed 252 people across China in June.

    The new wave of rainstorms have caused suspended shipping service in the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze River, blocked traffic in cities, delayed flights, destroyed homes, and flooded farmland.

    Central China’s Hubei Province and southwestern Yunnan Province on Saturday each reported that six were killed by the torrential rain.

    Twenty-five cities and counties in Hubei, where the country’s largest river Yangtze runs through, reported a total of 700 million yuan in damages (102 U.S. dollars).

    As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, the province saw another four missing, over 26,600 people evacuated and more than 2.58 million others affected, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

    The rains also damaged 105,000 hectares of farmland destroyed and toppled1,063 homes in Hubei.

People walk and the vehicle moves on the flooded Weiming Road in Cangzhou City, north China’s Hebei Province, July 5, 2008. Heavy rainfall hit Cangzhou on Saturday. (Xinhua/Fu Xinchun)

    The provincial government has sent four task forces to investigate the damages. And relief materials, including food, bottled water, tents and clothes, have been sent to the affected area.

    Yunnan, where the rainfall over the past 48 hours set a record high, reported three missing, 11 injured, 9,800 evacuated and more than 1,000 homes collapsed, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

    More than 970,800 people were affected by the rain-triggered disasters in the province as of 5 p.m. on Saturday.

    Rescuers are searching for the missing, and the injured have been hospitalized, said the government.

    The atrocious weather also triggered floods in the Yangtze River, where the two huge hydroelectric projects, namely, the Three Gorges and the Gezhouba, both started discharging water to lower the water level in the reservoir. The discharging would continue as more heavy rains were expected on the upper reaches of the river.

    The shipping services between two dams were suspended for five hours before they were resumed at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

A man rides bike on the flooded Weiming Road in Cangzhou City, north China’s Hebei Province, July 5, 2008. Heavy rainfall hit Cangzhou on Saturday. (Xinhua/Fu Xinchun)

    For thirsty Shandong province, however, the strong rainstorms is not all a bad thing. The province received an average 50 millimeters of rainfall since Thursday, greatly alleviating the drought since June.

    However, local meteorologists also warned that the government should consolidate banks and reservoirs for possible flooding of the Yellow River.

    More rain was forecast in the next two days in many parts of China and the China Meteorological Administration asked local governments to be prepared.

    QINGDAO, East China, July 5 (Xinhua) — Training area for the athletes to compete in the Olympic sailing competition in August is now clear from the algae invasion in the host city of Qingdao.

    ”If the weather is cooperative, athletes are able to complete their sailing course at the training areas now,” said Yuan Zhiping, assistant of the Chairman with the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee, said at a press conference on Saturday.

    The official also reassured the invading algae, called enteromorpha prolifera, would be wiped out at the competition area before July 15.

    ”Actually, I hope the cleaning can complete ahead of the schedule, so that the athletes will have more time to get used to the competition venue,” said Yuan.

    Thousands of soldiers and volunteers are still cleaning the bright green weeds, which was first spotted at the end of May and started to bloom in mid-June.

    Inflatable barriers have also been placed near the coastline to prevent the algae from encroaching on the shore.

    According to an emergency headquarters set up to clean the algae, its coverage in the sailing competition areas, which span more than 50 square kilometers, had shrunk from 32 percent five days ago to less than 10 percent by Friday.

    But an aerial survey shows 339 square kilometers of the green growth floating along the shoreline of the city and parts of the Yellow Sea, authorities said.

    The algae also covered part of the training area, where sailors from 26 countries and regions are training, and the algae sometimes blocked sailing routes and affected preparations for the Games.

    Sailors said they had to stop during training to clean the algae off their boats.

    The sailing competitions are scheduled from Aug. 9 to 23.

    Experts from the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) are working to determine the source and cause of the algae outbreak.

    The SOA was monitoring the route of the algae flow into the Olympic venue with current bottles. Experts dropped 80 bottles in the water around the venue after the bloom was spotted.

    They concluded some algae was from the waters of Rizhao and Jiaonan to the south of Qingdao. 

Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    WUHAN, July 5 (Xinhua) — Rescuers had recovered seven bodies from debris as 10:50 p.m. on Saturday after an under-construction building collapsed on Saturday afternoon in central China’s Hubei Province.

    In addition, 13 others were rescued and sent to local hospital.

    At least 20 construction workers were buried after the four-story building toppled at around 5 p.m. at the Qiuzhigou Village of suburb Wuhan City, the provincial capital, said Wan Yong, mayor assistant of the city.

    Wan said it is not clear how many people were at the site when the accident happened as the head in charge of the project ran escaped.

    Xinhua reporters saw the building has become a pile of ruins about five meters high and more than 100 rescuers are searching for the missing in rain.

    The municipal authorities said the construction of the building, a private residence, is illegal because it had not been approved by the local government.

    However, large rescue equipments, such grab and crane, can hardly got into the site because of the small alleyways less than 10 meters in width.

    Investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.

    BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) — The headmaster and building contractor were arrested Saturday after a school building wall collapsed and killed four students in southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in mid-June.

    Four students were killed and eight were injured on their way to the mess hall of the school at Liubao Town, Cangwu County, when the enclosing wall collapsed at about 5 p.m. June 16.

    Headmaster Wu Yuanming and building contractor Li Qinghua were arrested and to be prosecuted, local authorities said.

Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake    

    BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) — As of 12:00 Saturday, the death toll of the May 12 Earthquake in China remained unchanged, standing at Friday’s figure of 69,196, according to a government report.

    So far, 374,176 people were injured and 18,381 still missing in the deathly disaster that has affected Sichuan Province in the southwest and its neighboring provinces.

    The rescuer have saved and resettled 1,472,296 people to safer places.

    Governments at different levels have allocated 54,87 billion yuan (about 7.95 billion U.S dollars) for the relief efforts, including 49.74 billion yuan from the central government.

    To date, China has received 56.58 billion yuan worth donations from the public, both at home and from overseas.

Special report:   2008 Olympic Games         

    QINGDAO, July 5 (Xinhua) — The training area for the athletes participating in the August Olympic sailing competitions has been cleared of thick green algae in the host city of Qingdao.

    ”If the weather is cooperative, athletes will be able to complete their sailing courses at the training areas,” said Yuan Zhiping, assistant to the chairman of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee, on Saturday.

    Yuan said the invading algae, called enteromorpha prolifera, would be wiped out in the competition area before July 15.

    ”Actually, I hope the clearance will be complete ahead of schedule, so the athletes will have more time to get used to the competition venue,” said Yuan.

    Thousands of soldiers and volunteers are still cleaning the bright green algae, which was first spotted at the end of May and started to bloom in mid-June.

    Inflatable barriers have also been placed near the coastline to prevent the algae from encroaching on the shore.

    According to an emergency headquarters set up to clean the algae, its coverage in the sailing competition areas, which span more than 50 square kilometers, had shrunk from 32 percent five days ago to less than 10 percent by Friday.

    But an aerial survey shows 339 square kilometers of the green growth floating along the shoreline of the city and parts of the Yellow Sea, authorities said.

    The algae also covered part of the training area, where sailors from 26 countries and regions are training, and the algae sometimes blocked sailing routes and affected preparations for the Games.

    Sailors said they had to stop during training to clean the algae off their boats.

    The sailing competitions are scheduled from Aug. 9 to 23.

    Experts from the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) are working to determine the source and cause of the algae outbreak.

    The SOA was monitoring the route of the algae flow into the Olympic venue with current bottles. Experts dropped 80 bottles in the water around the venue after the bloom was spotted.

    They concluded some algae was from the waters of Rizhao and Jiaonan to the south of Qingdao.