East China floods cause over $1 billion in damage this month

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Heavy flooding caused by a typhoon and tropical storm in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong killed 14 people and caused 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) in direct economic losses this month, the China Daily said on Monday. China’s vegetable producing capital of Shouguang was among the worst hit, the paper said, with drones dropping antiseptic solutions to prevent a health crisis and workers draining the remaining water and burying animal carcasses in lime pits. China Daily said many in Shandong were blaming the latest disaster on the failure to respond quickly to flood warnings and discharge water from reservoirs in a timely manner, which meant there was little time to evacuate livestock. Every summer, China is forced to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents of flood-prone regions and use its extensive reservoir system to try to control water levels. In July, as many as 241 rivers in 24 provinces had flooded, causing 25.9 billion yuan in direct economic losses.