China: Floods in Zhejiang Province - Aug 1988
Disaster description
On 29 - 30 July, heavy rains caused violent floods in Zhejiang province, southeast China. In 12 hours rainfall reached 350-400 mm. 11 counties and cities were affected. The hardest hit was Ningbo city with 256 dead, 347 missing, and 200 injured, 120,000 people were stranded in an inaccessible area. 30,000 houses collapsed. 73,000 ha of farmland was flooded including 28,000 ha destroyed. Water in the affected area was contaminated and poisoned by rotting corpses and farm chemicals. Drinking water was in great shortage and freshwater from other places was not sufficient. (UN DHA, 4 Aug 1988)