BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) – A mudslide in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province on Friday killed one person and three others remained missing, while eastern and southern provinces were bracing for more downpours and floods, China’s state media reported.
The mudslide occurred around 6:30 a.m. (Thursday 2230 GMT) in Changxing County and caused a house to collapse, state-run Xinhua News Agency said.
A preliminary investigation showed that the mudslide was triggered by a flash flood after a sudden burst of heavy rain. Rescue work was underway, Xinhua reported.
China is increasingly battling destructive weather that scientists link to climate change, especially this year, as an emerging El Niño pattern boosts temperatures and fuels more frequent and intense typhoons.
Natural disasters in China in July, when the country was affected by Typhoons Maysak, Bavi and Noul, left 318 people dead or missing and caused direct economic losses of 57.15 billion yuan ($8.5 billion), according to data released by the emergency management ministry.
Both numbers were higher compared with July last year.
Typhoon Dolphin, which made landfall on the country’s eastern coast on Sunday, unleashed extreme rain across eastern, central and northern regions this week, breaking single-day rainfall records at 13 weather stations across the country.
In central China’s Henan Province, authorities were organising the evacuation of 781 people after a riverbank was breached late on Thursday in the city of Zhoukou, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.
Remnants of Typhoon Dolphin, combined with cold air and a monsoon trough, are expected to bring more heavy rain in eastern and southeastern China from Friday to Sunday, CCTV said in a separate report.
A basin-wide major flood is expected in Lake Tai in the east, the country’s third-largest freshwater lake and the origin of a number of rivers, according to CCTV.
($1 = 6.7412 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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