Hail and heavy rains in the north of east China's Fujian Province from Friday to Monday affected more than 300,000 people and more than 15,000 hectares of crops, local government sources said Tuesday.

The extreme weather has killed two people and injured 51. One town with a history of 1,000 years reported damage to its ancient structures.

According to local government sources, the hail and heavy rain affected 227,100 people and 12,000 hectares of farmland in Nanping city, with 99,300 buildings damaged and 54 destroyed. Direct economic losses were estimated at 340 million yuan (US$49.85 million).

In Sanming city, 74,700 people and 3,118 hectares of crops suffered, 93 buildings were destroyed and 43,900 damaged, involving 197 million yuan in direct economic losses.

Shaowu, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Nanping, was one of the worst affected.

Nie Zhicheng, a duck farmer at Chayuan village in Shaowu, said Tuesday that large hail stones Friday killed more than 1,000 of his ducks and caused losses of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.

Hail stones also left holes in the 3,000 square meters of roofs at a soybean processing plant of Hongye Food Co., Ltd., in Heping Town of Shaowu, causing at least 1 million yuan in direct economic losses.

Prices of raw materials for the roofs had doubled since the hail storm, said Liao Xiaocheng, head of the town. Continuous heavy rain was making transport of building materials into the town difficult.

Heping, with a history of 1,000 years, is included in the state lists of ancient towns with historic and cultural heritage.

The extreme weather, and the egg-sized hail stones in particular, smashed tiles on about 380 ancient homes, which were built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Since the homes were wooden structures, further rain would erode them, Liao said

Fragments of the tiles, from 40 to 100 years old, could be seen in roads. The tiles were produced with local methods, and were no longer manufactured.

Liao said tiles would be brought in from Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces to repair the ancient homes, which were in ancient Anhui style, in accordance with their original appearances.

Specialists from the provincial research institute of archeology of Shaanxi, northwest China, had been invited to help with the maintenance work, Liao added.

The provincial government has allocated 5.5 million yuan to cope with the aftermath of the hail, with 3 million yuan for Nanping city and 2.5 million for Sanming city.

Local meteorologists forecast that there would be frost in the two cities Tuesday and Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2010)