BEIJING - Rescuers in China were searching Tuesday for 17 people buried by landslides as flood waters from days of heavy rain surged past the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest. The landslides that hit Lingao county in central Shaanxi province late Sunday killed three people and left 17 missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Flooding and landslides from rain-soaked hillsides have left 15 dead and another 54 missing in Shaanxi in the past week, Xinhua said. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said that the death toll from summer storms stood at 146 with another 40 people missing as of Friday, a tally certain to rise as flooding continues. Much of the worst-affected areas lie along the Yangtze River Basin. Xinhua and state broadcaster China Central Television reported that the Three Gorges Dam withstood its highest water levels ever when a flood crest passed the dam Tuesday morning. The government cited flood control along the Yangtze as one of the main reasons for the $23 billion dam project that forced the relocation of 1.4 million people.
