Natural disasters left 204 people dead and 25 missing in China in July, according to a government report published on Saturday. Disasters in that month inflicted a direct economic loss of 43.59 billion yuan (6.75 billion U.S. dollars), led to the collapse of 111,000 buildings and forced 809,000 people to evacuate their homes, Xinhua quoted the evaluation report posted on the website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying. A total of 6.96 million hectares of crops were affected by disasters, and 590,000 hectares went unharvested, the report said. Also according to the statement, natural disasters that hit China in July were mainly floods, gales and hailstorms, lightening strikes, and droughts. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as Shandong, Sichuan and Shannxi provinces were the hardest-hit by floods and landslides. And sudden rainstorms caused severe floods of urban areas that brought traffic to a standstill. Further, July saw more storms and hail than the same periods of recent years, with 680 counties in 27 provincial regions across China affected. The death toll (including those missing presumed dead) caused by lightening strikes accounted for a large share of the total death toll, according to the statement without specifying the proportion. Additionally, as the northwest is recovering from severe drought, droughts in southern Guizhou and Hunan provinces are becoming increasing severe. The evaluation report was jointly made by the Ministries of Civil Affairs, Agriculture, Health, Agriculture, Railways, Transport as well as bureaus of earthquake, forest and China's Red Cross Society.
