Heavy rain is predicted to hit this inland province in Northwest China Tuesday through Saturday and it will cause more problems for the ongoing rescue work in Shaanxi's flood-stricken areas.

The local governments at all levels in Shaanxi will make greater efforts to deal with the problem, said Jia Zhibang, acting governor of the province.

Shaanxi was seriously hit by floods caused by heavy rain June 8-10. Loss of life and property was severe.

"In total, 152 people were reported dead in the flood in central and southern Shaanxi and the direct economic loss reached 1.181 billion yuan (US$142.28 million)," said the acting governor.

Some 300 people are still missing and are not expected to be found alive, Jia added.

In the past 10 days, the province concentrated all its efforts to rescue flood-stricken people and repair destroyed infrastructure including railways, roads, bridges, telecommunications stations, and water and power supplies.

The flood-destroyed Bahe Railway Bridge in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi, which links China's busiest railway from the coastal area to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been partly repaired. Repairs have increased the passing capacity of trains from 53 pairs daily to 86 pairs per day and the speed of trains from 50 kilometers per hour to 80 kilometers per hour, Jia said.

"And 13 national and provincial roads going through the province that were destroyed by the flood are back in operation, and telecommunication service restarted over the weekend in the worst flood-hit areas in southern Shaanxi," Jia said.

Foping, the worst affected mountainous county in southern Shaanxi, has regained water and power supplies in most parts, and on Sunday, the local people in the county were vaccinated. Since the start of the rescue work, the county seat has been disinfected everyday, and no one has died of epidemic diseases, according to Yang Lin, an official with the prefecture's Public Health Bureau.

Fortunately, no pandas were reported dead in Foping, one of the homes of this rare animal found only in China, even though it was the worst flood to ever hit the county, said Zhao Dehuai, director of the Foping Panda Protection Zone.

(China Daily June 18, 2002)