BEIJING
Natural disasters resulted in the deaths of nearly 2 thousand people and economic loss of around 580 billion yuan (95.2 billion U.S. dollars) in China in 2013. Over 400 people are still missing and 12 million others were forced to leave their homes due to difficult weather conditions including floods and droughts.
According to a report released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Committee for Disaster Reduction in China, natural disasters left 1,851 people dead. Disasters affected over 388 million people and forced the displacement of 12.15 million others.
Aside from difficult weather conditions including floods and droughts, 43 earthquakes with magnitudes of five or above struck the country.
Some 875,000 houses were destroyed and 7.7 million houses sustained damage during the disasters, while 31.35 million hectares of farmland was affected.
The economic loss from disasters was 580.84 billion yuan in 2013, up 38.8 percent from 2012, the report said.
According to the ministry, the central government sent out 5.84 billion yuan for disaster relief nationwide on December 9 and more is planned.
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