Flood disasters in China affect 58.9 million people with 590 dead or missing this year: emergency management authority

Flood disasters from January to October this year in China have affected 58.9 million people, with 590 people dead or missing, 3.5 million people needing emergency relocation and 203,000 houses collapsing, resulting in direct economic losses of 240.6 billion yuan.

The statistics were reported by Zhou Xuewen, a deputy head of China’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM), at a Monday’s press conference marking the third anniversary of the ministry’s establishment. In the light of more severe flood disasters this year, the MEM has launched 11 emergency responses to floods in various places to safeguard people’s lives and property, including a second-level emergency response to floods in North China’s Henan province which killed 302 and caused massive losses…READ ON

The Deadliest Natural Disasters of All Time

While the U.S. has suffered damaging wildfires, droughts, floods, and storms throughout its history, these have generally been less deadly and destructive than weather events in many regions of the world.

“As extreme weather events due to climate change start to occur in areas where they were not known to happen before, the retrofitting of existing public and private infrastructure is essential for our resilience.”

Typhoons and Hurricanes regularly batter Southeast Asia and South America, with torrential rains triggering landslides capable of burying villages. Droughts, and the resulting famines, regularly plague many African nations. Storm surges in the Pacific wash away entire communities, and sometimes the land itself. Even Europe has suffered terribly as the heat waves of recent years have killed the elderly by the thousands and dried up crops and livelihoods…READ ON