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All over Asia, a weakening El Niño triggered random acts of nature. China suffered its worst flooding along the Yangzi River in many decad
es. The authorities mobilized some 150,000 soldiers to hold back the rising waters and save big cities. Heavy rains were only partly to blame; deforestation and shoddy dam work also played a role in a disaster that, by official count, killed about 3,000 p
eople. In the Philippines, meanwhile, erratic typhoons well past their season slammed into coastal communities and devastated the nation's farming industry. And on July 17 at 6:30 p.m., a 10-meter tidal wave, set rolling by an offshore quake, struck Papua
New Guinea's coastal village of Arop without warning. Up to 3,000 people died in the tragedy, many of them children.
Photograph by Lin Gan - Xinhua |
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