China started a B-grade flood alert mechanism on Wednesday after the water level of the Xijiang River in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region rose 8.89 meters above the warning line.

The water level of Xijiang at Wuzhou City reached 26.19 meters at 4:00 PM Wednesday, according to the observation by a local hydrologic station.

The city is expected to see the first flood crest of the river early Thursday morning. The water level might reach 26.5 meters when the crest comes, 9.2 meters above the warning line.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (OSFCDR) said the flood control work of the city is tough.

More than 20,000 residents were evacuated to safe places after the river water was spotted to have flowed over the dike in the eastern part of the city.

In the city's western part, the river water is only 0.42 meters to reach the level with the dike.

The office said local garrison and people were working hard to reinforce the dike. More than 2,000 army men were dispatched to Wuzhou to help with the flood control work Wednesday morning.

E Jingping, general secretary of the office and Vice Minister of Water resources is now heading a task force in Wuzhou, directing the flood control and relief work.

The central and northern parts of Guangxi were swept by heavy rain since Saturday. The rainfall has so far caused at least 27 deaths and 20 people were reported missing in the autonomous region. The disastrous weather also resulted in 2.33 billion yuan (US$280 million) of economic loss.

China saw torrential rainfall in the recent week in its southern and eastern parts. And weather forecast said that Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang will also see rainstorms in the coming day.

In southern Guangdong Province, rainstorms caused cave-in of the roadbed of the Longchuan-Huizhou section of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway on Tuesday, and repair work is still underway.

Zhejiang Province in the east Wednesday reported an economic loss of 226 million yuan (US$27 million) caused by rainstorms and ensuing floods.

In Fujian Province, the water level of the Minjiang River was reported rising. The water level reached 11.48 meters, 1.68 meters above the warning line.

Wang Shucheng, deputy commander in chief of OSFCDR and Minister of Water Resources, on Wednesday urged officials at all levels who are in charge of the work of flood control to keep on alert for possible attack of floods.

He also warned that local officials should pay special attention to reservoir safety and possible occurrence of mountain torrents.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2005)