Bilis death toll reaches 530
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-23 08:27
The practice is common among local Chinese officials who fear reprisals if
they reveal embarrassing or negative statistics.
Soon afterward, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a circular warning that
local authorities would be punished if they did not give an accurate report on
flood numbers.
Flood waters washed away roads, cut power supplies and submerged part of
China's main north-south railway line in a swath of destruction that stretched
across the south.
Storm-ravaged areas faced new problems this week as a heat wave baked the
region, with temperatures rising as high as 38 C (100 F) Thursday in Fujian.
Typhoons hit China every summer, causing hundreds of deaths. The country
expects more storms than usual this year due to an unusually warm current off
its Pacific coast and high temperatures on the Tibetan
plateau.
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