(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- Floods in and around the eastern Chinese city of Shouguang, a major agricultural area for the cultivation of vegetables, have claimed 14 lives, left three people missing and led to economic losses amounting to CNY9.2 billion (USD1.3 billion), according to a senior local official.

The deluge that swamped Shouguang was the result of the heavy rains that accompanied tropical storm Rumbia, The Beijing News reported, citing Tian Qingying, vice secretary of the municipal party committee and acting mayor of Weifang, which governs Shouguang. It was the worst tropical storm to hit the area since 1974, he said at a press conference yesterday.

Located in Shandong province, Shouguang is an important production base for vegetables, other foodstuffs and seafood at a national level. It has about 150,000 vegetable greenhouses and 40,000 hectares of vegetable farmland with an annual output of 4.5 million tons, The Paper reported the city's vice party committee secretary Sun Xiuyi as saying in March.

On Aug. 17, weather forecasts estimated rainfall of between 40 and 70 millimeters, but the amount turned out to be far greater.

Flooding has had a devastating impact on the local livestock farming, and almost all pigs, foxes and chickens kept by local villagers have been killed. Nearly 20,000 pigs have been drowned or washed away, said Zhao Lei, a resident of Kouzi village, adding that his brother had raised nearly 400 hogs, and now there are fewer than 10 left. "More pigs might die as a plague is inevitable considering the large number of animals killed by the flood," he added.

Tons of rainwater also entered upstream reservoirs in the areas of Yeyuan, Qishuiya and Heihushan along the Mihe River, ruining large numbers of houses, farmland, greenhouses and livestock farms.

Editor: Emmi Laine