Flood Death Toll Rises in China

BEIJING — The death toll rose yesterday to at least 70 people as pounding weekend rains flooded wide areas of southern China and added to the misery of a nation wracked by natural disasters this year.

More rain is forecast over the next 10 days, and authorities were concerned about a 130-foot-long crack in an embankment of the Xijiang River, a major tributary of the Pearl River.

The opening put at risk the nearby city of Wuzhou, population 3 million.

More than 1 million people have been evacuated from the flood zones.

The flooding was driving up already inflated food prices, with vegetable prices rising as much as 70% in Guangdong province, according to the official New China News Agency.

Inflation of food prices was a pressing concern in China after freakish winter storms that damaged cropland over Chinese New Year and last month's earthquake in Sichuan province.

Summer flooding is a perennial problem in China, but early indications are that this year's could be extraordinary.