Central budget funds for reconstruction in Lekima-hit Chinese provinces

Relief funds of 330 million yuan ($46.9 million) have been appropriated by China's economic planner to support post-disaster reconstruction in three provinces worst hit by Typhoon Lekima.

Flood disasters caused by Lekima have inflicted severe losses in Zhejiang, Shandong and Liaoning provinces, according to a statement released on Aug 16 by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The central budget funds, with 170 million yuan to Zhejiang, 150 million yuan to Shandong and 10 million yuan to Liaoning, will be used for emergency recovery construction of infrastructure facilities and public utilities.

Lekima first landed in the city of Wenling in Zhejiang of East China on Aug 10, wreaking havoc as a super typhoon. A day later it made a second landing on the coast of Qingdao in Shandong province as tropical cyclone.

The total precipitation brought by Lekima reached 133.1 billion cubic meters, causing the water in 92 rivers of eight provinces rising above their warning lines, according to a statement from the Ministry of Water Resources.

As of 4 pm on Aug 13, some 12.88 million people had been affected, including two million people relocated. Nearly 13,000 houses collapsed and some 119,000 were damaged, while 996,000 hectares of crops were affected, official statistics showed.