Premier Wen Jiabao visited areas ravaged by tropical storm Bilis in Hunan Province on Saturday (June 22) as the death toll from the storm looked likely to rise from the 530 confirmed fatalities in China.

"You have been hit by a once-in-a-century disaster and suffered a lot," Wen told farmers in Kuncun Village in Zixing City, the worst-hit city in Hunan with 197 fatalities and 66 missing. "I felt deeply worried and wanted to see you here as early as possible."

Bilis killed 56 villagers in Kuncun, with five missing and more than 800 villagers rendered homeless.

"The government will help you build new houses," Wen said, holding the hands of an old farmer, Fan Jiancheng.

"The disasters can damage our homes, claim the lives of many of our people, but they can never break our will power," said Wen.

Wen also gave instructions to local officials on reconstruction and preparation against similar mishaps.

"The top task before us is to arrange for the lives of people affected, ensuring they have adequate food, clothing, shelters, clean water and medical care," Wen said. Hunan was the worst-hit province with 346 confirmed fatalities and 89 missing by Friday.
Bilis hit 33 counties and six cities of Hunan, bringing rainstorms, flash floods, landslides and mudflows since making landfall July 14. Some 7.29 million people were affected.

The death toll from Bilis in China was expected to rise from the 530 confirmed fatalities, as relief and rescue work has been extended throughout central and southern China, officials said.

Relief operations continued in the mountainous areas of central Hunan where flash floods and landslides buried villages and roads after Bilis dumped torrents of rain on the region, officials said.

"Zixing City was the worst area hit," a spokesman for the Zixing City media relations office said.

"We have not seen anything like this in this region in 500 years, the volume of rain was huge and it triggered landslides in a lot of areas."

He denied reports that local governments were trying to cover up the fatalities due to lax preparations and that illegal tree cutting in the region had resulted in the landslides.

Media reports have accused grass-roots officials in Hunan of covering up the death toll.

At least 346 people were reported dead and 89 missing from the rains in Hunan Province, the government reported late Friday night.

Bilis, which also claimed lives in the Philippines and Taiwan, has left a path of death and destruction since making landfall in China 10 days ago.

In Guangdong, which neighbors Hunan, 106 people were confirmed dead and 77 were missing, according to a provincial government report issued late Saturday.

At least 35 people were reported dead in the southern region of Guangxi, while 43 were killed in southeastern Fujian Province.

More than 20 million people were affected, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs last week.

Editor: Yan