Heavy rains are still ravaging several Guangdong cities such as Meizhou, Heyuan, Zhaoqing and Shaoguan, killing at least 20 people, injuring 279 others and leaving four people missing, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Guangdong provincial observatory on Monday forecast heavier rains for the next two days again after they subsided Sunday afternoon.

More than 2.04 million people were affected in the province, and 153,600 were forced to evacuate from their homes, it said.

The province's economic losses stood at 1.25 billion yuan (160 million U.S. dollars), more than one third of the total losses from the disasters, according to the ministry.

The increasingly rising flood inundates a house in Liuhuang Township in Shunchang county, southeast China's Guangdong Province, June 11, 2007. (Xinhua Photo/Zhou Wenjie)

Seventy-one people have been killed in southern China by torrential rains which are expected to resume over the next couple days, according to the ministry's latest report.

"Mud slides and floods triggered by widespread rainstorms have also left 13 people missing, affected about 350,200 hectares of crops, completely destroying 57,600 hectares of them," said an official with the ministry.

The number of houses destroyed by floods has risen to 56,000, with another 104,000 houses damaged in southern China. Some 643,000 people were forced to evacuate from their homes, the official said.

Last week, continuous rainstorms hit Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian, affecting more than 10.63 million people.

The disasters have caused overall economic losses of more than 3.43 billion yuan (436 million U.S. dollars), half of which was in the agriculture sector, according to the ministry.

The ministry has sent rescue teams to the disaster areas to assist relief work.

10,000 evacuated in flood diversion in Guangdong

A man climbs a ladder to reach a drainage sluice station in Zi Jin County, South China's Guangdong Province June 10, 2007. It is the worst flood to threaten 15 towns of the county in 50 years. [Xinhua]
 
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated from six villages that have been flooded to divert water from the swelling Hanjiang River in southern Guangdong Province.

No casualties had been reported in the villages in Liuhuang Town, said Guo Chunshan, the town's Party chief.

"All the evacuated residents have been appropriately resettled," said Guo, adding more people would be relocated if necessary.

The level of Hanjiang River, the second largest in Guangdong after the Pearl River, had dropped nine-tenths of a meter since a sluice gate was opened at 4:00 a.m. on Monday, but it was still 3.5 meters higher than the danger level, according to the food control office of Fengshun County.

The level of Hanjiang River, which runs 400 kilometers in east Guangdong, had risen since continuous heavy rainstorms hit the county on Friday.

By 4:00 a.m. on Monday, the level reached 26.44 meters, the highest in 50 years, threatening at least 2.5 million people along the middle and lower reaches.

"Actually, landslides and collapses have been frequent along the river dam area," said Guo. "If we hadn't opened the discharge gate, the dam might have overflowed and the losses would have been much more serious."

The village of Huanshi was almost completely submerged after the diversion. Most of the buildings are inundated up to the tops of the doors and villagers were piling their belongings on bamboo rafts.

"My house has been totally submerged and my whole family is staying with relatives," villager Zhan Meizhi told Xinhua.

"I don't know when we can return home, but village officials told us the government would take care of us and we could get compensation," said Zhan.

The local government organized more than 500 police and army personnel to help the evacuation and rescuers distributed drinking water and food.

According to the provincial observatory, more rains will hit the southwestern and eastern part of Guangdong from Tuesday to Thursday. Local governments have been warned to prepare for more floods.

Editor: Yan