Floods retreat in south China, nearly 200 dead

BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) Rain and flooding today eased across most of south China after killing nearly 200 people as survivors faced water shortages, severed roads and damaged homes.

The downpours were triggered by Tropical Storm Bilis, which killed dozens in the Philippines and Taiwan before striking heavily populated southern China on Friday.

Rain was still forecast for the worst-hit provinces of Hunan and Guangdong over the next two days, but officials and residents there reached by telephone today reported only intermittent drizzle and even sunshine.

In the far-southern province of Guangdong, where at least 44 were killed, the government was distributing clean water in Shaoguan, a city of half a million that was flooded.

''To restore power supply is easier, but it really takes time to get the taps running again,'' a disaster relief official told Reuters by telephone.

Trains resumed on Tuesday on the Beijing-Guangzhou railway which had been cut by floods and landslides near Shaoguan for the past three days, Xinhua news agency said.

In nearby Lechang, a prison was besieged by flood waters and more than 1,600 inmates and 220 guards struggled without fresh food and drinking water for three days before helicopters airdropped supplies yesterday, Xinhua said.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu flew to neighbouring Hunan province on Monday, where 92 people were confirmed dead and more than 100 were missing and many roads, including a major highway, were cut, a local official said by telephone.

State television showed footage of soldiers evacuating villagers stranded on the roofs of their homes in Hunan.

''The biggest problem now is drinking water. Many wells in the countryside were flooded,'' an official surnamed Huang in Leiyang, one of Hunan's worst-hit areas, told Reuters by telephone. ''And it is very hot today. There is an epidemic threat.'' The rain and floods also claimed 43 lives in the coastal province of Fujian, where Bilis made landfall in China, Xinhua said.

However, more heavy rain was expected tomorrow in the southwestern region of Guangxi, where authorities ordered the release of waters from 557 swollen dams after storms killed 19 and left eight missing.

South China is plagued by rainstorms every summer, but this year's flood season has been particularly deadly, already claiming hundreds of lives before Bilis struck.

Some 2.5 million were evacuated because of Bilis, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

Direct economic losses from the storm totalled 15 billion yuan after 200,000 hectares of crops and 208,000 houses were destroyed, the Ministry said on its Web site (www.mca.gov.cn).

Reuters PKS DB2357