The Ministry of Finance has allocated an emergency fund of 80 million yuan (US$9.66million) to disaster relief in China's flood areas, according to today's Guangming Daily. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Affairs yesterday arranged for 3,000 tents to be sent to Guizhou, Hunan and other disaster-stricken areas.

Major flooding brought on by heavy seasonal rains in southwest China's Guizhou Province have claimed 49 lives over the past two months, the local flood control and drought relief office said on Tuesday.

This was the death toll as of Monday June 6.

Some 2.13 million residents in the province have been affected. Over 3,000 houses have collapsed and more than 120,000 hectares of farmland destroyed. Direct economic losses are estimated at 340 million yuan (US$41 million), according to statistics offered by the office of the provincial government.
     
The local civil affairs department has injected over 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in disaster-relief, and rescue and preventative efforts are ongoing in a bid to minimize damage. 
     
In related news, the death toll from flooding in Hunan rose to 87 on Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency, Guangming Daily, June 8, 2005)