Fury In China Over Flood Deaths Cover Up

Chinese people fed up with a lack of official updates are compiling their own death tolls from deadly floods in the capital.

The move reflects public anger and mistrust of the city government, which has not updated its death toll since Sunday - the day after a record downpour hit the city outskirts.
Beijing says 37 people were killed after drainage systems were overwhelmed by the deluge, leaving city centre underpasses flooded and flash floods in the suburbs.
State media reported the toll could be as high as 61, while online rumours put it in the hundreds.
Beijing city government spokesperson Wang Hui said: "I want to say I hope everyone will not speculate that the Beijing government is hiding the death toll. Doing the inspection work is not easy. Do believe us that we will speak the truth. If there are new figures we will immediately tell you."
Xinhua News Agency, citing the Civil Affairs Ministry, said there were 111 storm deaths.
But authorities were still trying to pump water from sections of a flooded road after the heaviest rain in six decades.
The scale of the disaster was a major embarrassment for Beijing after billions of dollars were poured into modernisation programmes including 2008 Olympic venues, the world's second-largest airport and skyscrapers.
The criticism mirrors some of that seen after a high-speed train crash in southeastern China last year.
Mistrust of perceived underreporting of fatalities has seen thousands of messages posted on to microblogging sites.
Officials have kept a tight lid on information on the disaster, mindful that any failure to cope with the flooding could undermine the country's leadership as it undergoes a once-a-decade transition.
China's communist government has justified its one-party rule in part by delivering economic growth and maintaining stability in the face of bubbling unrest and periodic mass disasters like Saturday's flooding.

Emergency workers rescue an elderly woman in Chongqing, southwest China

In worst-affected Fangshan district, residents were compiling their own death toll online using both public and private chat rooms on the popular Baidu website. The toll was not being posted publicly, but some online accounts said the number was more than 300.
Li Chengpeng, a writer based in the southwestern province of Sichuan, said he was collecting names of the dead from flooding in Beijing and elsewhere.
He said: "We need to commemorate the people who have died in tragic events. But there are so many of them now, and they go uninvestigated, unaccounted for.
"Nothing happens after these incidents, and the people die and no figures are given to the public? No acknowledgment? No explanation?
"Now people are using the internet... to do the job the government does not want to do."
The Changjing Daily newspaper reported online that Beijing city officials said the death toll had yet to be finalised because officials were still trying to identify the bodies.
The flooding was triggered by heavy rain at the weekend and caused damage across China.
Authorities issued a yellow alert - the third highest in a five-tier disaster warning system - ahead of further rain storms, as people snapped up survival gear.
Online retailers including the Taobao shopping website reported spikes in the sales of a keychain device for smashing car windows after people drowned when they were trapped inside their vehicles on submerged underpasses.