SHENYANG, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Some 253,500 residents have been safely evacuated in northeast China's Liaoning Province after torrential rains caused waters to rise to the highest level in more than a decade along a major river bordering China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), local officials said Sunday.
The hundreds of thousands of residents, mostly in Dandong City, were relocated in less than 24 hours from late Saturday to Sunday, provincial flood control authorities said. Among those rescued was a 23-year-old woman who gave birth to a healthy baby just hours after she was air-lifted out of the flood zone.
No new casualties were reported on Sunday. Previously, authorities said four people were killed and one remains missing following floods in Dandong, a border city facing Sin'uiju City in the DPRK.
Heavy rainfalls that began Thursday have swelled the Yalu River, which marks the border of China and the DPRK. On Saturday night, the water level at one monitoring station in Dandong rose to 2.35 meters above the warning line, the highest in a decade and the second highest since records began being kept in 1934.
However, water levels began to dip late Sunday as rains stopped, though provincial authorities warned that the danger has not yet passed.
Workers are racing to build sand bag flood barriers along part of the river where the water has overflowed. Over two thousand soldiers and crews have been mobilized to rescue stranded residents. About 70 vehicles, 38 speed boats and six helicopters were used in the rescue operations, local officials said.
BABY BORN
On Sunday, a healthy baby weighing 3.9 kilograms was born in the Women and Children's Hospital of Dandong. Hours before, her mother, 23-year-old Liu Li, was stranded at home in rural Kuandian County waiting for mid-wives to come amid heavy flooding.
After learning of Liu, Liaoning Governor Chen Zhenggao first ordered helicopters to send experienced doctors to Liu and later had Liu air-lifted to Dandong. Liu was immediately admitted to the hospital as she arrived.
"I never thought my daughter could be born in this way. If not for the emergency rescue, we both could have died," she told reporters.
She was still unable to tell her family the good news as traffic and telecommunication services have not been fully restored. But doctors at the hospital said Liu and her daughter were being well taken care of and most of her hospital fees had been waived.
BOTTLED WATER, BREAD, SAUSAGES
In Dandong, where 94,000 people were relocated, the city government spent roughly 1 million yuan to feed the displaced residents.
Li Lingyu, an official with the city's service sector committee, said the city's stockpile of food and water was sufficient and no price speculation was reported. Bakeries were specially ordered to operate at full capacity to ensure a supply of fresh bread, Li said.
In several temporary shelters, Xinhua reporters saw biscuits, bottled water and sausages being sent to the flood survivors at regular intervals.
"We have meals and everyone can get two bottles of water a day," said Sui Yanfang, from the worst-hit Gulouzi Village. "Of course it was more comfortable at home. But here, we have food, we have water, and that's enough for now."
Local officials said the latest flooding has caused 361 houses to collapse and cut transportation, communications and power supplies in some areas. The length of the dike breaches have reached 149.6 kilometers.
Torrential rains started to pound Liaoning Province Thursday at midnight with precipitation of as much as 651 mm in the worst- hit region. In most parts of the Yalu River basin the precipitation ranged from 200 mm to 400 mm.
Besides the enormous rainfall, a reservoir under repair in the upper reaches of the Yalu River also intensified the flood relief pressure in the lower reaches, as the reservoir could not function.
PRE-EMPTIVE EVACUATION
China has been suffering from a string of rain-triggered disasters recently as the country battles its worst floods in more than a decade.
In southwest China's Yunnan Province, as of Sunday, 29 people were killed and 63 remained missing after mudslides hit the remote, mountainous town of Gongshan on Wednesday.
Rain-triggered mudslides also killed more than 18 people in Wenchuan and Qingchuan counties in southwest China's Sichuan - which was devastated by a massive earthquake in 2008.
Work crews and rescuers reopened all major roads leading to mudslide-hit areas of Wenchuan on Sunday after days of work.
In the northwestern province of Gansu, at least 1,435 people were killed and another 330 are reported missing after an avalanche of mud and rocks hit the center town of Zhouqu County at mid-night Aug. 7.
Authorities on Sunday banned the retrieval of bodies from the worst-hit areas, citing slim chances of the discovery of more bodies and the mounting threat of disease outbreaks.
Only one body was retrieved on Sunday.
"After rounds of search, there is no trace of life at all in the mud-covered areas. As the bodies of the victims were highly decomposed, if the retrieval continues, it would be more likely to trigger disease outbreaks," a government directive says.
China's Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi has ordered local officials to carry out pre-emptive evacuations to avoid heavy casualties in geological disasters.
In a work conference held in Yunnan, Xu Shaoshi said local officials should not hesitate in forcing residents in disasters-threatened zones to move ahead of a looming disaster, even when the forecasters can not be sure.
"As long as there is a sign of geological disasters likely to occur, officials should take it seriously and carry out the evacuations," Xu said. "It is better to hear the people's blames than their cries."
Xu also ordered local offcials to strengthen monitoring efforts by using advanced technologies and mobilizing the public.
Editor: yan