Torrential rains have caused cave-ins across a 500,000-square-meter area near a mine in central China's Hunan Province, forcing residents to evacuate, local authorities said Tuesday.

An unknown number of cave-ins in Ningxiang County, some as deep as 15 meters, have damaged buildings, bridges and electricity poles, cutting power supplies to some villages.

The county government evacuated 28 families whose homes have been damaged by the cave-ins.

More than 6,900 people are living in the affected area.

Ningxiang County is one of the first areas to report damage from the third round of heavy rains that began Sunday.

More rain is expected this week. Casualties and property loss from the rains in Hunan are not immediately known, the province's flood-control and drought relief headquarters said.

During the second round of rainstorms that began May 12, one person was killed in a landslide and about 3.7 million people were affected.

According to the headquarters, 12,700 residential buildings were destroyed and about 141,000 people were evacuated. The direct economic losses were estimated at 1.66 billion yuan (US$240 million).

Eleven townships with 50,000 residents in Dejiang County in northwest China's Gansu Province suffered flooding after being hit by rainstorms from Monday to Tuesday morning.

The flood damaged more than 100 buildings and caused losses of 7 million yuan (US$1.03 million).

In Wuyuan County in east China's Jiangxi Province, rainstorms have forced 4,000 residents from 11 townships to evacuate, a county government spokesman said. No casualties were reported.

As of 5:00 PM Tuesday, nearly 15,000 residents had been evacuated in Jiangxi Province, according to the provincial flood control office.

The meteorological bureau in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region issued a rainstorm alert Tuesday, forecasting torrential rains in northern and eastern part of the region from Wednesday to Thursday.

A rainstorm ravaged Guangxi from May 13 to May 14, flooding 26 townships with a population of 77,300.

Since April 1, 16 provinces have suffered floods which have caused direct economic losses of about 10.3 billion yuan, said the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters Tuesday.

A total of 13.67 million people have been affected by the floods, 70 have been killed and 21 are still missing, the headquarters said.

The floods have also affected 835,000 hectares of crops and destroyed 74,000 houses.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2010)