Continuous heavy rainstorms, which started Tuesday, has lead to three people dead and six others missing in central China's Hunan Province, the provincial flood control headquarters announced Wednesday afternoon.

The strong rain not only caused mountain torrents and landslides, which destroyed residential houses and flooded farmland, but also cut down the transportation and communication in some areas, according to the headquarters.

Among all the storm-affected areas, three cities, namely Huaihua, Yiyang and Xiangxi, suffered most serious damages. Duringa span from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, in Huaihua City alone, some 260 residential houses collapsed, leaving three people dead and six others missing, according to the statistics from provincial civil affairs department.

So far, three main reservoirs in the province have opened sluice gates to discharge the floodwater and all-level governmentshave launched emergent disaster control operation to evacuate the residents from the flood-vulnerable areas to safe places and resume the flood-interrupted transportation and communication.

The provincial meteorological station said Wednesday that rainstorms would still linger in the province Thursday and the central and southern parts would be the focus.

The provincial government officials has required the governments in the affected areas should pay much attention to theearly warning work in the disaster control and should give priority to the resettlement of the disaster victims.