Record floods in China’s central Henan province have killed at least 25 people as of Wednesday and forced a the evacuation of an additional 200,000 people in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, local government officials said.
Flooding in southwest China’s Sichuan province in recent days displaced about 110,000 people as of Sunday, Chinese government officials said.
The “March Miracle” storm system that has lashed California for the last four days, dumping 6 feet of snow in the Sierra Mountains, just ended what appeared to be a new drought.
Warnings have been posted for the risk of mudslides in areas that burned in last year’s wildfires, as bone-dry California looks forward to its best week of rain and snow this winter.
Half of California is officially back in drought, while the Midwest and Plains may suffer from extreme flooding, as the extreme La Niña weather condition intensifies.
Relatives of Chinese disaster victims — from a stampede killing 36 in Shanghai to the capsizing of a ferry carrying hundreds to the Tianjin chemical explosion in August — allege that the government has wiretapped their phones, threatened, and sometimes beaten them to keep them from asking questions.
