This year's series of natural disasters have so far killed 1,699 people in China and left another 415 missing, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) revealed on Thursday (Aug. 10th).

A total of 300 million people have been affected by a slew of natural disasters this year, with losses totaling more than 130 billion yuan (16.25 billion U.S. dollars), said Jiang Yiman, deputy director of RCSC.

"About 5 million houses and more than 32 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed," Jiang said, adding that the statistics had been verified by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

China's southern areas have been reeling under the effect of typhoon-driven heavy rains in the past month.

Bilis, Kaemi and Prapiroon, respectively the fourth, fifth and sixth storms of the year, have provoked floods, mud flows and landslides, resulting in huge losses in Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian provinces and in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

More typhoons are on the way.

RCSC appealed to the public on July 21 for aid, and has so far received donations worth 19.8 million yuan (2.5 million U.S. dollars), including 2.4 million yuan from Hong Kong Red Cross and 1.1 million yuan from Macao Red Cross.

Red Cross societies all over China have offered a total of 120 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars) to domestic regions hit by natural disasters this year.

RCSC has sent 12 teams to monitor local disaster relief work. "Team members say that, in many areas, the storms are the worst inthe last one hundred years," Jiang said.

She elaborated that the newly collected relief fund will be used to build new houses for 800 poor homeless families in disaster-hit regions.

Nine villages in Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian with most houses collapsed were selected to be the first to benefit from the restoration efforts, and 386 local families will move to new homes before the Spring Festival, she said.

"RCSC will also use the fund to rebuild nine township hospitals or medical schools in Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang," she said.

Meanwhile, RCSC has also received international donation totaling 37 million yuan (4.6 million U.S. dollars), which is planned to be used for emergency aid and to build houses for another 1,200 homeless families.

July alone saw 987 people die and 310 missing in natural disasters in China.

Most of the deaths occurred in southern, eastern and central China ravaged by typhoons. Prapiroon, lashed China's southern coast last week, killed at least 80 people. Kaemi claimed at least35 lives and Bilis killed more than 600 people.

Super Typhoon Saomai, the strongest to threaten China in 50 years, just made landfall in Cangnan county near the booming city of Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province.

More than 1.3 million people had been evacuated from their homes in southeast region, already suffering from two months of devastating weather, ahead of the landfall.

Bopha, forecast to be the ninth tropical storm to hit China this year, will be following close behind Saomai.

Two storms moving together can enhance each other's strength to create an even stronger climatic event, meteorologists warned.

Editor: Donald