In 24 hours from last night, the southern and eastern parts of Henan Province and most parts of Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, which the Huaihe River passes through, will experience torrential rain, thundershowers or hurricanes, said the Central Meteorological Station.

The localities need to guard against and control floods and geological disasters such as landslides, said the station.

Meanwhile, the station also forecast that the eastern part of Guizhou Province, the northern part of Hunan Province, and the eastern part of Hubei Province will also suffer heavy rain or thunderstorms.

The water level in most sections of the Huaihe River has exceeded the highest point since 1991 when a massive flood occurred in the river, exceeding that of 1954. The entire mainstream of the river has exceeded the flood warning line.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and its provincial headquarters have set up seven flood diversion areas which hold 1.4 billion cubic meters of water. Some new canals are also being used to reduce the water level in the mainstream.

The province has allocated over 24.4 million yuan (US$2.97 million) to the affected areas. A large quantity of relief goods and a 5,000-strong emergency task force have been sent to the areas.

In another development, the water levels of the Songhua River tributaries in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province are rising, according to local hydrology and water resources survey offices.

As of 8 am Tuesday, the water level at the Harbin Hydrology Station had climbed to 111.23 meters, 1.16 meters above the record low on June 12.

But with the onset of the flood season in late June, the water levels of all the tributaries of the Songhua and Neijiang rivers in the northeast have begun to rise.

In Xi'an, the capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, three local residents were killed in a sudden thunderstorm on Monday.

(China Daily July 9, 2003)