7,844 dead or missing in China disasters in 2010
January 15th, 2011 - 12:29 am ICT by IANSBeijing, Jan 14 (IANS) Natural disasters left 7,844 people dead or missing in China in 2010, an official statement said Friday.The natural calamities also affected 430 million people, the ministry of civil affairs (MCA) said, citing official figures from various institutes.
They caused direct economic losses of 534 billion yuan (about $80 billion), 1.2 times higher than the average of the previous 20 years, the China Daily reported.
Over the past 20 years, the severity of the disasters of 2010 was second only to that of 2008, when severe snowstorms and a 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck, the ministry said.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Qinghai province in April last year, while a mudslide in Gansu province in August left around 5,000 people dead or missing.
The natural disasters affected nearly 40 million hectares of crops, with four million hectares yielding no harvest at all.
Flood and flood-triggered disasters - such as landslides and mudslides - wreaked the greatest havoc. Meteorologists blamed global warming for many of the mishaps.
The provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan suffered the most from natural disasters.
- China disasters affected 430 mn people in 2010 - Jul 22, 2011
- 3,514 Chinese killed in natural disasters in 2010 - Jul 08, 2010
- Five die in China quake - Sep 07, 2012
- Rainstorms, floods affect 3.8 mn in China - Aug 17, 2011
- At least 107 killed in China torrential rains - Jul 14, 2010
- Rainstorms in China leave 18 dead - Jul 20, 2012
- 17 dead in China floods - Jul 23, 2011
- Earthquake shakes China's Yunnan province - Sep 07, 2012
- Sandstorm sweeps across northwest China, three killed (Lead) - Apr 26, 2010
- 175 killed in China floods - Jun 20, 2011
- China quake kills 64, injures over 700 (Second Lead) - Sep 07, 2012
- 23 die as more mudslides hit China - Aug 22, 2010
- China mudslides toll rises to 1,287 - Aug 19, 2010
- China quake: Toll rises to 67; over 700 injured - Sep 08, 2012
- At least 19 dead, 168 injured injured after quake devastates SW China county - Mar 10, 2011
Tags: china daily, civil affairs, crops, economic losses, global warming, guizhou, havoc, hectares, landslides and mudslides, magnitude earthquake, mca, mishaps, mudslide, natural calamities, natural disasters, severity, sichuan, snowstorms, yuan, yunnan