Authorities have evacuated nearly 140,000 residents along the swelling Huaihe River in three provinces as of late yesterday. The river was expected to rise to 29.3 meters at the Wangjiaba hydraulic station in Anhui early this morning, 1.8 meters above the warning mark, the state flood and drought headquarters reported yesterday. Authorities in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces moved 138,000 residents to safety. The Huaihe cuts between the Yellow and the Yangtze rivers.