Geological disasters spike this year
August 22nd, 2010
The country recorded more than 26,000 geological disasters in the first seven months of this year, nearly 10 times the number in the same period last year, Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi said on Friday.
The disasters, ranging from landslides to ground subsidence, left 843 people dead or missing and led to direct economic losses of more than 3.34 billion yuan ($491 million), Xu said in an interview excerpt posted on the ministry’s website.
Xu attributed the disasters to frequent …