Damage from natural disasters in China in the first half of the year exceeded $13 billion

China's direct economic damage from various natural disasters in the first half of this year amounted to about 88.8 billion yuan (about $13.2 billion).

Such data was presented on Thursday at a press conference by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the People's Republic of China.
In total, natural disasters last month disrupted the normal lives of over 39.1 million people. In April, various regions of the country suffered the most from snowstorms, floods, earthquakes and forest fires.
During the specified period, 178 people died or went missing as a result of natural disasters. Emergency services evacuated more than 1.28 million residents from the affected areas. Natural disasters destroyed about 18 thousand residential buildings throughout China.
Over the past year, according to official data, 867 people died or went missing as a result of natural disasters, and over 100 million more were affected to one degree or another. Emergency services evacuated more than 5.73 million people from disaster zones in 2021. Direct economic damage exceeded 334 billion yuan ($49.8 billion).