S China downpours affect 2.48 mln people

A total of 2.48 million people have been affected by downpours that have swept south China since Monday, the country's flood control authorities said Thursday.

Torrential rain has caused damage in seven provincial regions, including Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Anhui, according to preliminary calculations by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Heavy rain has also severely damaged 148,000 hectares of crops and left 2,590 houses collapsed in south China, the headquarters said.

The rain triggered flooding on six small and medium-sized rivers in the provincial areas of Hunan, Guangxi, Anhui and Guangdong, and brought the water level near alert lines in Taihu Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake, it said.

China's National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs dispatched officials to central China's Hunan province on Thursday to inspect its flooding and rainstorm situations and conduct disaster relief work.

Rainstorms and flooding have affected nearly 1.95 million people in 37 counties of nine cities in Hunan, leaving three dead and two missing, according to the local government.

The areas have been evacuated of about 111,000 people, government figures show, adding that more than 4,700 houses have been severely damaged and 105,600 hectares of crops have been affected.

The local government has sent tents, quilts and other relief materials to the affected region.

In southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region alone, the death toll from week-long rainstorms has risen to 10, while another person remained missing, local authorities said Wednesday.

Another round of storms are expected to arrive in Guangxi from June 30 to July 2 due to the coming tropical depression Duksuri, according to a local observatory forecast on Thursday.

In east China's Zhejiang province, a third round of plum rain is expected to to stop on Friday and temperatures will exceed 30 degrees centigrade in the next three to five days, the provincial observatory said on Thursday.

In central China's Hubei province, more than 980,000 people in 76 counties and cities have been affected by the extreme weather since June 25.

The rain also damaged 133,000 hectares of crops and left 390 houses collapsed in Hubei. The direct economic loss to the extreme weather is estimated to be 335 million yuan.