Flood-hit families to get subsidies to rebuild homes
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When a flash flood struck their village ten days ago, 55-year-old Fu Bailin and his relatives had no time to take any belongings as they fled, except for a bill of debt.
"All our belongings have been swept away. My 100-square-meter house was flattened. My 2.5-hectares of cropland was destroyed," said Fu, a soybean and corn farmer at the Yaodianzi Village in Dunhua City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China's Jilin Province.
All the houses of the 286 families in the village were destroyed. Fu's family, including Fu, his 70-year-old father, his wife and son, along with their fellow villagers, now live in temporary tents in the local forest police headquarters in Dunhua. The forest police also provide meals for them.
Floods have left 85 people dead and 66 missing in Jilin over the past two months, local authorities said Saturday.
More than 5 million people have been affected since the flood season began in June and some 1.5 million people have been evacuated, the Jilin Provincial Civil Affairs Department said in a statement.
Additionally, almost 82,000 houses have collapsed and 198,000 others have been damaged, the statement said.
Economic losses were estimated at 45 billion yuan (6.6 billion U.S.dollars), it added.
In the hardest-hit areas, flash floods have cut roads, isolated villages and disrupted communications and water supplies.
Compounding the problems, more downpours were forecast to hit the province in the coming two days.
"It will be very difficult for me to rebuild my home. I still owe 20,000 yuan to the bank," Fu said.
His family had a yearly income of about 30,000 yuan before the flood destroyed everything, and to build a house of 50 square meters usually costs 70,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan.
Most of his fellow villagers face the same dilemma as Fu.
The Jilin provincial government issued a notice Friday, saying that each flood-hit family in the rural and urban areas are eligible to receive 20,000 yuan in subsidies if they need to rebuild their destroyed homes, and 1,000 to 3,000 yuan if they need to repair their damaged homes.
The provincial government also promised to give 450 yuan to every homeless person as a "living allowance."
In addition, each rural family that lost homes can receive 200 to 300 yuan per month as a "housing allowance" before next June, and for each urban family they can receive 400 to 500 yuan per month.
In Dunhua, the government said it would offer 30,000 to 40,000 yuan to each flood-hit family if they rebuild their homes completely by themselves. In addition, the government can help them build two types of houses -- 45 square meters or 60 square meters.
"According to the regulation, I still need to prepare 15,000 yuan myself if I want to build a 45-square-meter house, and 30,000 yuan for a 60-square-meter house. That is actually still difficult for me," Fu said.
"But we cannot just rely on the government. We ourselves also need to find other ways," he added.
Flood-triggered disasters have killed more than 1,450 people across the country this year, with another 669 missing, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Lingering rainstorms have continued slashing provinces including Shaanxi, Sichuan and Jilin this year, triggering floods and landslides which have affected a population of 200 million and forced more than 12 million to evacuate, according to the ministry.
Nearly 13.5 million hectares of crops were affected by heavy rains and floods, with 2.09 million hectares destroyed, while floods have also leveled more than 1.36 million houses.
The total economic loss was put at more than 275 billion yuan, according to the ministry.
The central finance authority has recently allocated 195 million yuan to subsidize local governments in those regions worst-hit by natural disasters such as rainstorms and typhoons.
The fund, which has been channeled to Jilin, Guangdong, Sichuan and Shaanxi, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, will be used to relocate residents, help people rebuild homes and offer relief to residents who lost family members.
"We are investigating the losses of local residents, and the government will allocate money to help flood-hit families rebuild their homes as soon as possible," said Liu Weiyi, vice mayor of Dunhua.
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