Environment     

More than 900,000 affected in Chinese rainstorms

Xinhua, July 17, 2012

• Torrential rain last week affected about 750,000 people in central China's Hunan province, the provincial flood control and prevention headquarters said on Monday.

  Heavy rain have poured on Hunan since last Wednesday. A total of 175 counties and townships in the province have been affected, leaving 410 houses collapsed and inundating 21,100 hectares of cropland, it said.

  Meanwhile, the flood control and prevention headquarters of neighboring Jiangxi province announced on Monday that, as of Sunday morning, 168,700 people have been affected by rainstorms sweeping central and north areas of Jiangxi. The extreme weather has also led to the collapse of 49 houses.

  The provincial flood control and prevention headquarters has relocated 2,690 people away from possible rain-triggered floods and mudslides.

  In Anhui province, authorities ordered the operators of more than 240 reservoirs to start discharging water on Monday to prevent them from overflowing, as the water levels of three major rivers in the areas have surpass safe levels.

  Anhui's flood control and prevention headquarters has dispatched more than 7,500 cadres and other people to check the river banks, and no serious risk has been reported so far.

  In addition, homes in Kaikou township in southwest China's Guizhou province have been evacuated of more then 400 people as rainstorms swept the area, causing power outages and landslides on Monday morning.

  The local government has sent food and water to the residents, and flood relief work is in ongoing.

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