LIFELINE CUT: A rockslide causes the collapse of the Chediguan Bridge on July 25 in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of last year's catastrophic Sichuan earthquake, severing the county's most vital link to other places (XINHUA)

At least six people were killed on July 25 when a rockslide smashed into a bridge in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of last year's catastrophic Sichuan earthquake, in one of a series of disasters caused by heavy rains in the area.

The slide caused the Chediguan Bridge to collapse, severing the No. 213 national highway and the county's most vital link to other places. The bridge is considered a lifeline for Wenchuan's reconstruction, with an average of 10,000 vehicles traveling on it every day. The bridge, crushed during the earthquake by huge rocks rolling down from nearby mountains, was reopened on the catastrophe's one-year anniversary.

Heavy rains triggered a landslide at around 5 a.m., a Wenchuan Government official told Xinhua News Agency. A 200-ton boulder came down from a nearby mountain, hitting and breaking the bridge's pier. The official said that more than 100 meters of the 300-meter-long bridge collapsed and seven vehicles were destroyed.

Within eight hours rescuers built an emergency passageway, which allowed vehicles with less than nine seats to drive through in one direction. The local government has blown up nearby mountains to prevent further landslides.

Vegetable prices surged in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan Province, as the accident severely restricted replenishment of the city's food supplies. According to a local newspaper, vegetable farmers who relied on the bridge to transport their produce to Chengdu were forced to make a 300-km detour, prompting a spike in transportation costs. Chengdu's agricultural wholesale markets urgently purchased vegetables from neighboring provinces, which increased supplies and eased tension.

Wang Shige, an expert in mountain hazards assessment and mitigation with the Chengdu-based Institute of Hazards and Environment, told Beijing Review that the landslide happened because rocks that had been loosened by the earthquake were made unstable by the heavy rains, which softened the soil.

Wang coauthored a paper that predicted the earthquake-impacted area would be particularly vulnerable to mountain hazards for the next decade. Due to the higher-than-average rainfalls and an increase in extreme weather in Sichuan this year, other parts of the province will also be more prone to mountain hazards, he said.

As of July 28, torrential rain that came down in the span of 12 hours on July 26 and washed over Miyi, a county in Sichuan's southwest, had killed at least 24 people and injured 44 others. The floods and resulting mud-rock flows have affected 69 villages and 103,115 people in Miyi, causing 202 million yuan ($29.7 million) in damages.

A mud-rock flow triggered by heavy rains on the morning of July 23 in Kangding, in western Sichuan, buried 136 temporary sheds set up by construction workers on a hydropower station project. The local government announced on the evening of July 28 that 22 people had been confirmed dead and 43 were still missing.

The rescue operation was initially hampered by damage to the only highway leading to the disaster area by the mud-rock flow. With large equipment unable to get to the scene until the morning of July 25, rescuers and relatives of the missing used their hands, shovels and small portable machines to cut through 500,000 cubic meters of rock and mud.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs announced in Beijing that rains and floods throughout Sichuan between July 14 and 17 left at least eight people dead, five missing and thousands homeless. More than 117,000 people were relocated after downpours destroyed more than 5,000 houses in 22 counties.

The downpours caused traffic-blocking mudslides on highways in the province and between Sichuan and Tibet Autonomous Region.