How China's flood victims take the high route
to save their possessions
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 19th June 2008
When the people of Fengkai were warned that the
rivers in their south China town were going to overflow,
they knew what to do. Ground-floor residents and
shop owners enlisted friends and relatives to help
them haul upstairs everything of value --
televisions, furniture, computers, even motorcycles.
People on high floors of apartment buildings,
most of which are six or seven storeys here,
cleared spaces for neighbours from below
and welcomed them in.
Shop owners pulled shutters down.
Ladders were lashed to second-storey
balconies and windows.
The authorities cut electricity.
Schools were closed.
Then they waited.
Enlarge china flood
Flood problem: Residents look out
from their home in Fengkai county,
west of Guangdong Province
"The water came quickly this year,"
said Zhang Shang, sitting at the stern
of a shallow wooden boat paddling through
streets that were turned into
mocha-coloured canals.
"It only took one night to rise."
Floods hit this part of the country on a
regular basis -- once every two or three years,
resident say -- and every time the water
rises life goes on, albeit at a slightly different tempo.
On Wednesday, after the water had
receded about a metre, it was still
10ft deep in parts of town.
The rain and floods, concentrated in Guangdong,
where Fengkai is, and neighbouring Guangxi,
have killed at least 171 people and left 52
missing since the start of the annual flood
season and forecasters have warned of more
downpours in coming days.
More than 1.6 million people have been
evacuated across nine provinces and regions
in southern China since major flooding started
12 days ago, state media have reported.
Dampener: Flooding from the recent heavy rain
has destroyed tens of thousands of homes
and submerge swathes of farmland
In some areas, rain-triggered floods toppled
houses and damaged wide tracts of cropland,
state media reported.
In Fengkai, swollen rivers inundated a large
area of town, but there were no reports of
deaths and all the buildings in the inundated
part were intact -- indeed, inhabited.
The Central Market was submerged, so the
government ordered vendors to the sidewalk
on both sides of the town's main road.
Huang Lifen, selling peaches and lychees at
a temporary stall covered by a red, white
and blue tarp, said the flooding has added
nuisance to her already long days.
Huang said she tried to get to market by 6 a.m.,
but the only way out of the flooded area
where she lives on the second storey of an
apartment building is to hail a passing boat
from her window like the one Zhang was paddling.
"It's 3 yuan (43 cents) to get out,
and 3 yuan to get back, and if I go
back late at night it's 10 yuan," she said.
Enlarge china flood
More difficulties: Pigs are walked on a street by
vendors after their market was flooded,
at the township of Fengkai
china flood
Rescue: A local resident climbs on a boat at a flooded street
Despite an armada of small boats making a
killing plying the streets, Huang said it was
hard to get one in the morning.
"I have had to wait an hour in the past."
At night, Huang heads home when customers
thin, usually around 9 or 10 p.m.
"There's not much to do since there's no
electricity," she said, picking stems off lychees.
"Plus, it's late. I'll cook dinner, do laundry
or things like that, then go to sleep."
Huang's brother sold potatoes, peppers,
garlic and other vegetables at the stall next to hers.
Beyond that, other vendors hawked live fish
and butchered live chickens and ducks by
the side of the road. One man herded two
pigs down the street, which was
crowded with cars and shoppers.
During a respite from the rain, Long Zhe,
a fifth grader wearing an L.A. Lakers jersey,
trotted up to a passing foreigner to try out his English.
He and a friend had been sent to buy vegetables.
For the past three days since classes were cancelled,
he has been cooped up at home
doing homework or watching TV.
Long says his parents do not let him
out most of the time, and his teachers
had also forbidden it.
"It's so boring," he said.
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