Flood disrupts railway services

BEIJING -- A total of 21 trains have been canceled for services and nearly 5,000 passengers are still being stranded in northeast China's Heilongjiang province after torrential rains triggered by Typhoon Damrey swept across the area.

The Railway Bureau of Harbin said as of 9:00 p.m. Saturday, they have refunded the money spent on 18,125 train tickets, but nearly 5,000 passengers are still being stranded in railway stations due to heavy rains.

In the city of Anshan, Liaoning province, 6,355 residents have been relocated to safety as heavy rains have battered the city since Friday morning, the flood control and drought relief headquarters said.

It is said that four reservoirs in Anshan have released flood water to restrict water levels. And traffic on Danhai (Dandong-Haicheng) Highway were interrupted when a collapse occurred at a section of a tunnel there.

In Helan township of Liaoyang county, Liaoning province, 66 residents were trapped in waters on Saturday morning.

The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters has dispatched helicopters and rescue vessels to pull 62 people from flood, but other four persons are still being trapped.

The services of a major local railway that links Liaoning's capital city Shenyang with the port city of Dalian was suspended after a section was submerged under water at about 2 a.m. This led to the delay of about 10 trains, the Shenyang railway bureau said in a statement.

Flooding also caused the collapse of a railway bed on a section of the Shenyang-Shanhaiguan line. This forced the suspension of more than half a dozen bullet trains running from Liaoning to other major cities.

Two sections of other railway, which links Shenyang with Dandong, a border city in Liaoning, were inundated in flood water at about 9:50 a.m., disrupting train services.

The rain also affected traffic on 18 major highways in Liaoning.

One person was killed and another five missing Friday night in Dalian when flood waters collapsed a bridge, the local government said.

Flooding also has forced the evacuation of 88,773 people in the province.

According to statistics released by the civil affairs department of eastern Shandong province, Damrey have left more than 2 million people affected and five people dead.

After Typhoon Damrey lashed the province, about 200,000 hectare croplands were damaged, 1,718 houses were collapsed and the direct economic losses totaled 1.69 billion yuan (265.2 million US dollars).

Two typhoons, Damrey and Saola, made landfalls in east China Friday, something rarely seen in the country, bringing strong gales and heavy rainstorms.

The typhoons had left five people dead and one missing and forced the evacuation of 932,000 residents in provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Shandong by Saturday morning, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.