The torrential rains brought about by Kammuri, the ninth tropical storm of the year, toppled plenty of civilian houses, and destroyed road and telecommunications facilities in parts of Hekou, a border county in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Details of the damage in the county are not available due to disrupted traffic and telecommunications, said local sources.

It rained heavily from Friday through to Saturday in Hekou, which sits on Sino-Vietnamese border, causing sporadic flash floods, according to Hekou County Government.

According to the same sources, from 8:00 AM on Friday to 2:50 PM on Saturday, the seat of Hekou County had a rainfall of 210 mm, while another place known as Basa Farm recorded a rainfall of 317 mm. The torrential rains caused water level in key rivers in the county to rise above danger line.

Local weather observatory predicted the rainfall would last till next Monday.

Working teams dispatched by the county government are traveling on foot to those isolated rural villages to check out flood situation and damage down there.

Kammuri was the third storm to hit China this season, after tropical storm Kalmaegi and typhoon Fung-Wong.

It produced heavy rain on the Leizhou Peninsula in southwestern Guangdong, after an evening landfall from Xitou Town, Yangxi County in the province, on Wednesday, and made another landfall in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at 2:50 PM on Thursday after lashing across neighboring Guangdong Province and the Beibu Gulf.

Kammuri weakened into tropical low pressure system and all but ceased to affect south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as of Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2008)