China storms wreak havoc in south & northwest

Heavy rains in China kill at least 40 people and landslides triggered left 178000 people homeless. The highest death toll in the rains, which started Thursday, was in crowded Guangdong province in the southeast, where 14 people were killed and four were missing.

China suffers deaths and damage every summer when seasonal rains cause flash floods. Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes but fatalities are reported in farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers, and in mountain towns that are hit by flash floods. Millions of people in central and southern China live on flood-prone reclaimed farmland in the flood plains of rivers.