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Standing water on Chicago-area expressways turned what should have been an easy Saturday morning drive into a soggy, snarled mess after heavy rains across the Midwest closed roads, stranded residents and punched a hole through an Iowa dam.
In Chicago, officials say more than 7 inches of rain fell early Saturday, inundating the sewer system and overwhelming waterways. Water covered portions of several Chicago interstates and the commuter train tracks that run along them, leading crews to divert traffic and call in bus shuttles. Portions of Interstate 290 west of downtown were closed for several hours.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and other officials urged residents to call for help if they need it.
© XinhuaA street lamp is partially emerged by the flooded Yangtze River in southwest China's Chongqing city.
Winds of up to 78 miles per hour (126 kilometers per hour) knocked over a wall in Guangdong's Wuchuan city, killing two people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Heavy flooding swept away a 50-year-old man in a village in Hong Kong late Thursday. Marine police said they found his body in open water Friday morning.
Chanthu has moved north to Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi region, and been downgraded to a tropical storm, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement on its website.
The storm comes as China grapples with severe flooding that has left at least 742 people dead and 367 missing so far this year, the flood prevention agency said Friday. The death toll jumped by more than 40 Friday, but it was not clear if the increase was from new deaths this week.
Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rain have killed at least 10 people in Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces near China, the government said on Sunday.
The biggest death toll of five came in Ha Giang province, where people were buried in their homes or swept away in floods, the Hanoi-based national flood and storm control department said in an online statement.
Of the victims, four were children aged between two and 15 years old, the agency said.
Hundreds of houses in five northern provinces have been inundated while roads and crops were severely damaged in up to 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain, which began falling on Thursday, it said.
At least 10 communes in Bac Giang province have been cut off.
The biggest death toll of five came in Ha Giang province, where people were buried in their homes or swept away in floods, the Hanoi-based national flood and storm control department said in an online statement.
Of the victims, four were children aged between two and 15 years old, the agency said.
Hundreds of houses in five northern provinces have been inundated while roads and crops were severely damaged in up to 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain, which began falling on Thursday, it said.
At least 10 communes in Bac Giang province have been cut off.
© AP Photo/The Gazette, Julie KoehnMaquoketa River water gushes out of the Delhi Dam as areas surrounding the Maquoketa River continue to flood on Saturday, July 24, 2010 in Delhi, Iowa.
The Lake Delhi dam in eastern Iowa failed Saturday as rising floodwater from the Maquoketa River ate a 30-foot-wide hole in the earthen dam, causing water to drop 45 feet to the river below and threatening the small town of Hopkinton.
Northeast Iowa has been inundated with torrential rain in recent days with as much as 9 inches being reported in some locations. The heavy rain has pushed the Maquoketa River to 23.92 feet - more than 2 feet above its previous record of 21.66 feet in 2004.
Jack Klaus, a spokesman with the Delaware County emergency management office, said warning sirens were sounding in Hopkinton as water began to surround homes there Saturday afternoon. Areas below and above the dam had been evacuated, including numerous cabins and homes - as many as 700 - above the dam because of high water.
"There's going to be significant losses of property there," Klaus said.
© UnknownFlooding has plagued 75% of the country
But officials, in the first high-level press briefing on weeks of deadly flooding plaguing much of the country's southern half, said a disaster on the scale of historic 1998 flooding on the Yangtze River would likely be averted.
A total of 701 people have died so far this year in flooding that has also left 347 people missing, Liu Ning, head of the country's flood control authority and vice minister of water resources, told reporters.
He said the annual rainy season would continue at least through August, and that more downpours were expected, further straining reservoirs and other water control projects, especially as the East Asian typhoon season has just begun.
The number of those died in the rain-related incidents in various parts of the country has been risen to 39 with fear of more causalities. Heavy rains lashed Lahore for the third consecutive day paralyzing life and deluging the low-lying areas, which resulted into long snarl-ups. Met office recorded 61mm rain in the metropolis today.
A 24-year-old cyclist electrocuted to death in Lahore, while 5 hurt as roof caved in in Ravi Road. Five people including two women and as many children injured as a wall collapsed due to incessant rain in Jalal Pur Bhattian. Two labourers died in Okara due to electric shocks; a couple died in Gujranwala as the roof of their house caved in. Three people trapped under debris of a roof in Gujrat; 8 hurt in Faisalabad wall collapse. Four people have been killed while 15 others injured in rain-related incidents in Dera Ismail Khan (DIK) and Tank.
© ETN/Image via blogspot.com
Some parts of the city were knee-deep under water, gradually even displacing parked cars. The ensuing floods caused havoc for businesses at level ground, with hawkers and street vendors scrambling to rescue their wares from being swept away.
© UnknownPike County residents clean up after the flooding.
"We're trying to get a hold on this. It's just awful," said Brandon Roberts, a spokesman for the Pike County judge executive, the top elected official in the county. "It's so bad. ... It's so bad. People might not even be aware it's raining. They're a hundred yards away from where they used to be."
Roberts said Wednesday that floodwater had washed "well over 200 homes," including a brick house, off their foundations. He added that the water picked up a Ford F-350 truck and carried it into a tree.
CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said there was an even a higher chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain in the region Wednesday than there was Tuesday. Some parts of Kentucky were under flood advisories, and over the next few days, some locations could get 2 more inches of rain, he said.
Roberts said that in a twisted way, more heavy rain could help cleanup efforts by clearing roads and driveways of accumulated mud and debris.
© XinhuaSoldiers transfer people trapped by flood water on a rubber boat in Guang'an, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on July 19, 2010.
At least 347 people are missing, Liu Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.
Ninety-percent of the casualties were caused by mountain floods, mudslides and landslides triggered by heavy downpours. About 645,500 houses had collapsed, he said.
More than 230 rivers were above warning levels; 25 of them saw their highest levels ever, he said.
More than 100 cities flooded, he said.
Liu cited torrential downpours between June 13 and June 27, and heavy rain on July 8 in southern China as particularly damaging.
"In southern China, the rainfall is 30 to 100 percent higher than the historical average," he said.
© AP
The flood situation remained grim in Sardulgarh area of the district with several acres inundated and various villages submerged. Rescue work was on and the army and paramilitary forces were assisting the district administration in the relief operation.
'Over 9,000 acres of agriculture land has been inundated and several villages are submerged in water in the Sardulgarh area. Floods have damaged 19,452 houses in the district,' Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul told IANS.
'Flood water entered five more villages, namely Mirpur Kalan, Mirpur Khurd, Bhagwanpur Hingnan, Alipur and Bern, since Thursday,' he said, adding though the water level has receded at some places, the situation is still grim.
