china flood death tool 1,072. 619 people(aprox) missing

China's worst flooding in more than a decade has killed nearly 1,000 people across the country and stranded tens of thousands in the northeast without power.
The state-run flood control office said 968 people have been killed since the rainy beginning of the year and 507 others are missing.More heavy rains were expected for the southeast, southwest and northeast parts of the country through Thursday.About 30,000 residents in Kouqian town were trapped in their homes after torrential rains drenched the northeastern province of Jilin on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Water began flooding the town after the nearby Xingshan Reservoir and the Wende and Songhua rivers overflowed. Rescuers were delivering supplies by boat and moving people to higher ground.In Jilin city in Jilin province, workers were busy recovering thousands of barrels of chemicals that had tumbled into the Songhua River after a flood swept through a local factory."The worry this year has been on the dams and the reservoirs ... This year it's been so much extra rainfall, about 15 per cent more than usual. "That complicates the situation because the reservoirs are getting full and the dams are nearing their maximum capacity."Flooding has hit areas all over China. A total of 875,000 homes have collapsed and almost 10 million people have been evacuated, according to Xinhua.The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has reached 90 per cent of its full capacity.Thousands of workers have sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Han rivers, an official with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, said.
"Right now, the Han river in Hubei province is on the verge breaching warning levels".The Han is expected to rise this week to its highest level in two decades.Workers were prepared to blast holes in the river's embankment to divert flood waters into a low-lying area of farms and fish ponds, Xinhua said.
The toll in floods triggered by torrential rains in China this year has reached 1,072, while 619 people are still missing.The floods have affected over 140 million people in 28 provinces and caused economic losses estimated at almost 210 billion yuan, said Shu Qingpeng, deputy director of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief.Floods also destroyed over 1.1 million homes and damaged 9.72 million hectares of farmland.Rivers like the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Songhua were all swollen to danger levels after heavy rains. Authorities have evacuated 10.42 million people this year from areas at risk of flooding.

new zealand earth quake kermadec islands"series of earthquake and aftershocks"

The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near New Zealand's Kermadec Islands. There are no reports of damage or risk of tsunami from the quake.According to the USGS, the quake struck at 21:17:00 UTC on Saturday, which is 9:17 a.m. Sunday morning local time. The epicenter of the quake was 12 miles below the mostly uninhabited islands, which are approximately 620 miles east of New Zealand's capital city of Auckland.A series of earthquakes and aftershocks have shaken New Zealand in the months following a magnitude 6.3 quake that devastated the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 181 people.Meanwhile, a magnitude 3.6 quake rolled across the San Francisco Bay Area at 7:05 p.m. local time on Saturday. Emergency officials said there were no reports of serious damage or injury.The USGS National Earthquake Information Center received scores of quake reports from people in the Bay Area.Also on Saturday, scientists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office confirmed that an eruption began in the Grímsvötn volcano at approximately 17:30 UTC.The eruption produced minor seismic activity in the region and an the eruption plume that had risen to an altitude of over 65,000 ft. a short time later. Radio evangelist Harold Camping had predicted that 'Rapture' would begin on Saturday, May 21, 2011 with an earthquake in New Zealand.Followers of the 89-year-old retired civil engineer spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. But the May 21 doomsday deadline has passed and many of Camping's followers are wondering why they're still here.Keith Bauer and other believers waited outside the Oakland headquarters of Harold Camping's Family Radio International. Bauer drove his family from Maryland to California to await the May 21 Rapture.Bauer says he was somewhat skeptical but made the trip because of his belief in God. "It's God who leads you, not Harold Camping".