Floods ravage southern China
BEIJING - Floods blocked roads in southern China, leaving about 300 teenagers stranded at a school with limited supplies of food and water, an official said yesterday, after days of heavy rain killed at least 15 people.
About 550,000 people have fled their homes in southern China after heavy rains toppled houses, flooded roads, and damaged a dam, news reports said.
Floodwaters blocked the entrances to the Hemu Town Middle School in the Guangxi region and rendered nearby roads impassable, according to an official of Rongshui County where the school is. She would only give her surname, Lu.
Flood-control officials used boats to deliver food, mineral water, and other supplies to the school Saturday, including pumps to lower the water level, Lu said.
She said she did not know how long the children, ages 13 to 15, had been stuck in the building.
CCTV said the floodwaters along a major commercial thoroughfare elsewhere in Rongshui were more than 8 feet deep. The report said it was the highest water level the county has seen in a decade.
Heavy rains have battered the region since Wednesday, forcing about 290,000 people in Guangxi to relocate, the official Xinhua news agency said.
