Natural disaster affects almost 13 millionThe death toll from Typhoon Rananim climbed to 164 Tuesday, with 24 people still missing, according to officials in East China's Zhejiang Province.A rescue operation searching for 21 people buried by wreckage caused by the mudslide on Friday in Leqing, Zhejiang Province was underway, said Feng Zhili, vice-mayor of Wenzhou, one of worst-hit cities in Zhejiang Province.A child picks up debris left by a disastrous mudslide on August 13 after Typhoon Rananim hit Leqing in East China's Zhejiang Province. The death toll from the mudslide rose to 27 Tuesday, with another 20 people missing."The tragedy happened after the terrible Typhoon has really worsened the great damage," said Feng, adding that telephone lines to Leqing were still down four days after the city was hit by an avalanche of mud and rock.The latest figures from the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said 12.99 million people have been affected and the mudslide had caused 18.128 billion yuan (US$2.18 billion) worth of damage.Provincial officials said 109 people had been killed when their houses collapsed, with a further 28 losing their lives in the subsequent landslides, flash floods and rockfalls, with nine being killed by strong winds.About 20 migrant workers are on the casualty list, with 144 victims being local people.Typhoon Rananim, which swept through the whole Zhejiang Province on Thursday night, was the biggest typhoon to hit the country since 1956, according to the China Meteorological Administration.It struck Wenling, a coastal city in Zhejiang Province, at 8 pm last Thursday night.It then ripped through south of Taizhou and Wenzhou, the west of Jinhua and Quzhou and ...
