The death toll from floods in southcentral Hunan Province rose to 91 as of yesterday, when seven more victims were registered in the new round of heavy rainfall, sources with the local civil affairs department said.
Seven people died in the rain-triggered floods that hit the cities of Yiyang, Shaoyang and Chenzhou from Sunday to yesterday.
More than 2,270 houses toppled over the past two days in Yiyang, where 22,000 residents have been relocated.
More than 908,000 farmers and at least 20,000 hectares of farmland in the flood-hit regions were affected in the disaster, which induced 361 million yuan (US$43.5 million) in direct economic losses.
Elsewhere, 31 people were killed and four others were still missing in floods, landslides and mud-rock flows triggered by torrential rains in southwestern Guizhou Province, according to latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs yesterday.
Continuous downpours have hit eight cities and ethnic autonomous prefectures in Guizhou since May 31, causing prompt relocation of nearly 20,000 local residents, says a notice posted on the ministry's Website.
The ministry yesterday kicked off an emergency plan for disaster relief work, and will send a work team to Guizhou.
Earlier, a work team composed of officials from several ministries, headed by Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Jia Zhibang, rushed to Hunan to help in disaster relief work.
In fact, meteorologists said yesterday that China had experienced more climate-related disasters in May and is faced with a more complex climate this year than previous years.
They made the remarks at a Beijing meeting on how to improve the efficiency in dealing with the disasters in the flood season, which started from June this year across China.
Two hundred and fifty-five people had been killed and 34 were missing in rainstorms, blizzards, thunderbolts and other climate-related disasters in May, said Jiao Meiyan, director of the National Meteorological Center at the Chinese Meteorological Administration.
Most parts of southern China received about 40 to 70 percent more rainfall than the average level in previous years, and some even reported about 90 to 150 percent more rain than earlier, Jiao said.
In may, about 300 counties and cities across 20 provinces, regions and municipalities were hit by rainstorms, and some had been seriously hit by hailstones.
South china entered the flood season in May, the earliest in the past five years, while the Yangtze River basin will brace for a wetter rainy season from mid-June, promising more landslides, floods and mud-rock flows in the flood-prone area, Jiao said.