Prayers for the 100s Dead & Missing Due to Rain in N Korea, Pls? Thnx!

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NKorea: Hundreds dead, missing in rain

1 hour, 1 minute ago

SEOUL, South Korea - Heavy rains spawned flooding that

left "hundreds" dead or missing in North

Korea and destroyed more than 30,000

homes, the country's state media reported Tuesday.

The official Korean Central News Agency said preliminary information

revealed massive casualties after the storms that began last week, but gave no

specific figures.

It said the rain also flooded tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the

impoverished country that suffers from regular food shortages.

"The heavy rain destroyed at least 800 public buildings, over 540

bridges, 70 sections of railroads and at least 1,100 vehicles, pumps and

electric motors," KCNA said.

Hardest hit appeared to be Kangwon province, where KCNA said there were

"huge casualties" and that homes for more than 20,000 families were

partly or completely destroyed. The effects also reached to the North Korean

capital, Pyongyang.

"The material damage so far is estimated to be very big," KCNA

said. "This unceasing heavy rain destroyed the nation's major railways,

roads and bridges, suspended power supply and cut off the communications

network."

North Korea

also suffered from flooding last year that caused massive casualties, although

the exact numbers of dead were never revealed by the secretive country.

Damage from storms is often worsened in North Korea because its citizens

denude vast hillsides to create more arable land to grow food, meaning natural

vegetation that can stop erosion and landslides is no longer present.

More than 2 million people are estimated to have died in North Korea

after a famine struck in the mid-1990s, which the government blamed on natural

disasters but was also linked to outdated farming methods as well as the loss

of the country's Soviet benefactor. North Korea still relies on outside

food aid to help feed its people.

In a statement Tuesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red

Crescent Societies also noted the damage from the weather and said the national

Red Cross was on a 24-hour alert. The statement gave no details of deaths and

only mentioned five people missing in an initial series of reports that did not

include all areas affected.

The international federation said it had given disaster kits to 500 homeless

families with blankets, kitchen sets, water containers and other necessities.****Story off Headlines this evening (Monday August 13th, 2007)