2nd LD-Writethru: Five dead after torrential rain in central China
Xinhua, June 3, 2015 Adjust font size:
Five people have died and two are missing after heavy, incessant rain in central China's Hunan Province since Monday, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said Wednesday.
About 1.15 million people from 52 counties in Hunan have been affected by the storms and the evacuation of over 63,000 people is ongoing. The rain has also destroyed 1,778 houses, according to the headquarters.
The local meteorological authority said the current weather front is likely to continue until Friday.
In Guizhou Province, southwest China, one person has died since heavy rain started on Tuesday, and more than 410,000 people have been affected, according to the provincial civil affairs department.
The storms have spread across more than 20 counties and cities, with 20,000 people forced to evacuate and 352 houses destroyed, causing an estimated economic loss of 163 million yuan (26.3 million U.S. dollars).
A section of a railway line, which linked southwest China's Chongqing Municipality with Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou, was seriously damaged, delaying nearly 20 passenger trains on Wednesday.
The provincial meteorological center forecast the heavy rain will continue for the following two days.
The National Meteorological Center issued on Tuesday an alert for rainstorms in southern regions, including Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou provinces as well as Shanghai City from Tuesday night to Wednesday. Endite