The second-highest alert for storms in the northeast and southwest regions has been raised by state meteorological authorities amid increasing damage wrought by floods and ahead of landslides forecast for the coming week.

The orange alert was issued as heavy rains and strong gales are expected to strike the Shandong peninsula, the western Sichuan basin, southern Hebei and southern Shanxi, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said on Wednesday.

Storm alerts are broken down into three levels: red being the highest and yellow the lowest. In an orange alert, precipitation volumes are expected to reach more than 50 mm in three hours, with traffic restrictions put into effect and advisories issued telling people to avoid any work outdoors.

The CMA called for local governments to pay attention to rainstorm-triggered mudflows and landslides along the Huaihe River, which may be pounded by heavy storms over the coming week.

The latest floods hit southern Guangxi Province, with water levels in some rivers breaking record levels set in 1998. Liuzhou, the region's second-largest city, had its largest floods since 1996, with two dead and more than 2 million people affected, according to statistics from the local flood control office issued last Sunday.

From January 1 to July 7 this year, floods caused by storms have hit 28 provinces, claiming 144 lives and causing the direct economic losses of 26.7 billion yuan (US$3.9 billion), according to the latest figures released by the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief.

The central government has allocated 170 million yuan in flood-control subsidies to the 13 flood-damaged provinces and municipals in south China, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

Ten supervisory teams have been sent in waves to help the local authorities with flood control measures and 247,000 people have participated in the rescue. However, the heavy rainfall is expected to help areas that have been plagued by drought, such as Gansu, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, as well as the Ningxia region, the administration said.

No worrisome precipitation has taken place in Shanxi for more than 250 days since October last year, with only seven counties citing rain volume of more than 20 mm, according to figures from the local flood control and drought relief office.

The southeast and northwest of the country is also suffering from heat waves with the highest temperature reaching 38 C in some provinces such as Fujian, Jiangxi and Hubei, the CMA said.

(China Daily July 9, 2009)