lst LD-Writethru: Rainstorms hit China’s Jiangxi, Hunan

NANCHANG/ CHANGSHA, June 21– The flood control and drought relief headquarters of east China’s Jiangxi Province upgraded the flood control emergency response to level II on Monday evening, as around 485,000 residents were affected by lingering rain. From Saturday to 3:00 p.m. Monday, heavy rain and floods had hit 55 counties across Jiangxi, with 43,300…

NANCHANG/CHANGSHA, June 21 (Xinhua) — The flood control and drought relief headquarters of east China’s Jiangxi Province upgraded the flood control emergency response to level II on Monday evening, as around 485,000 residents were affected by lingering rain.

From Saturday to 3:00 p.m. Monday, heavy rain and floods had hit 55 counties across Jiangxi, with 43,300 hectares of crops affected. Direct economic losses from the floods reached 470 million yuan (about 70.3 million U.S. dollars), according to the headquarters.

The local meteorological department said that rainfall in Jiangxi would weaken slightly on Tuesday, but heavy rain would hit its southern and eastern parts. The rain belt would move north to the Yangtze River basin on Wednesday.

Persistent rain has also battered the neighboring Hunan Province since Friday. As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, 250,473 people had been affected by rainstorms in Hunan, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Heavy precipitation has resulted in the collapse of 94 houses, forcing 51,143 local residents to relocate, and damaged more than 21,607 hectares of crops.

In the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River, rain-triggered flooding has caused the water level to exceed the warning level. Enditem