Flooding situation has worsened with continuous heavy rain in central China's Hunan province since Saturday as a total of 2.677 million people in the northwestern part of the province were badly affected, said sources with the local flood prevention headquarters.

As a result of the heavy rain lasting from 8:00 a.m. Saturday to 20:00 p.m. Monday, the water level all along the Ruanshui river valley has surpassed the warning line and those of the middle and lower reaches of the Zishui river and the southern Dongting Lake will surpass the warning line soon.

Among 219 hydrometric stations which saw rainfall in the province, 61 reported a precipitation of over 100 mm, and the highest precipitation amount was in Huaihua city of 368 mm.

By 4:00 a.m. Monday, nearly one third of Huaihua's urban area has been drowned, with the deepest water level measuring five to six meters. Five counties of the Huaihua city have also been flooded.

Local officials said that Huaihua has witnessed 970 landslides,with two people killed. So far, some 102,000 people has been transferred to safer region.

The floods has also interrupted 284 roads in Hunan Province.

In another development, by 15:00 p.m. Monday, the water level in the Liuku part of the Nujiang River in the Lisu Autonomous Prefecture of Nujiang, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, hadreduced to 808.84 meters, lower than the warning line.

By 18:00 p.m. Monday, the floods had killed six people, with 11still missing. Statistics showed that 7,570 people were badly affected, 3,638 houses collapsed and 310 hectares of fields were submerged, according to sources with the prefecture government of Nujiang.

Rainfall from July 1 caused flooding in the prefecture. Weather forecast indicates that there will be more rainfall in the next few days.

An official with the local government said that all the flood prevention departments across the prefecture have been mobilized to combat flooding.

Source: Xinhua