The National Meteorological Center expanded the orange alert for rainstorms Monday morning to predict that Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhejiang will experience torrential rains Tuesday.

The flood-battered areas have been battling almost continuous rainstorms since June. Flooding and landslides triggered by the heavy rains have burst river banks, cut roads and rail links and caused dikes to collapse during the past week.

Heavy rain since July 8 has affected 18.3 million people in regions along the Yangtze River, leaving 43 dead and 18 missing, China's flood control authorities said Monday.

The death toll released by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH) excluded deaths caused by lighting strikes.

By 2:00 PM on Monday, the major lakes and main streams along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River had been slowly rising, according to the SFDH.

A total of 39,000 homes had collapsed, 755,000 people had been evacuated and 974,000 hectares of crops were affected by floods, resulting in direct economic losses of 10.6 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion), according to the SFDH.

More than 4,200 people in Anhui Province have been evacuated after the dikes of a river suffered breaches, the local government said on Sunday.

Bainian River, which flows through Anqing and Tongcheng cities, reported five minor dike breaches between 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM on Sunday, forcing the evacuation. No casualties have been reported so far, according to the flood-control and drought-relief headquarters of Anhui.

"I never expected to see such heavy rain this year and never thought it would continue for so long," said 72-year-old villager Wang Guisheng from Yiluo Village.

Wang said that his village has never seen such heavy flooding since 1969.

Water levels in some rivers and lakes have exceeded the warning lines since July 8 when heavy rains began to pound the province.

Throughout the province, the heavy rain has impacted the lives of almost 2.5 million people, said Cai Zhengzhong, spokesman for Anhui provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

He said that since last Thursday the rains, which had also damaged 2,496 water conservancy works, had caused an estimated direct economic loss of 586 million yuan.

On Saturday, Vice-premier Hui Liangyu urged all relevant departments to issue alerts promptly, reinforce dams and dikes, and resettle people affected by the floods.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2010)