Bridges Destroyed To Reduce Flooding

Soldiers cleared 20 tons of mud and stones from railroad tracks and dynamited bridges to relieve rivers swollen from seasonal flooding that has killed at least 315 people, official reports said Saturday.

Rains subsided in some of the worst affected areas in southern and central China and tributaries of the Yangtze River receded from their dangerous crests.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police and military reserve workers have been called in to rescue more than a million people stranded by flood waters, clear inundated farm land and repair damage to dikes, roads and buildings.

Over the last 10 days, the storms have dumped 22 inches of rain across nine provinces and regions that take in some of China’s best farmland and poorest villages.