At least 54 people have been killed over the past week due to heavy rain, strong winds and hail across the country, the National Disaster Reduction Committee said Wednesday. Thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds and hail have hit 267 counties in 18 provincial regions since Friday, Xinhua quoted a statement issued by the committee as saying. These disasters affected nearly 6.4 million people and resulted in direct economic losses of 4.07 billion yuan (632 million U.S. dollars), the statement said. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as the provinces of Shandong, Sichuan and Hubei, were hit hardest by the recent bad weather, the statement said. In Weihai, a coastal city in eastern Shandong Province, heavy rains and floods have toppled 107,000 houses and forced the relocation of more than 124,000 people since Sunday, according to the provincial civil affairs department. As part of emergency responses to the heavy rainfall, the committee and the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Wednesday dispatched a disaster relief and survey team to the flood zone in Shandong.
