Rains in northeast China's Jilin Province continue to add pressure on the already strained reservoirs, many of which have had to discharge water or risk embankment breaches.

The highest rainfall reached 204 mm over the past 24 hours as of 8:00 AM Thursday in central Jilin, the provincial meteorological station said.

At Fengman Reservoir, the largest reservoir along the Songhua River, the speed of water discharge has reached 4,500 cubic meters per second, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Thousands of people had been sent to keep alert over embankments and dams, and a 24-hour monitoring system had been set up to ensure the safety of reservoirs, said Wang Rulin, governor of Jilin Province.

In Linjiang City which borders the Democratic People's Republic of Korea along the Yalu River, three townships of the city had been isolated by rain-triggered floods and mudflows, and 38,000 residents relocated from other parts of the city as more torrential rains were forecast for the next two days, said Yin Xiangmei, deputy mayor of the city.

Heavy rains had also hit nearby Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and Shandong, among which the provinces of Liaoning, Shandong and Hebei issued torrential rain alerts.

In Xingcheng, Huludao City of Liaoning, ten workers doing dredging work in a river were stranded on an isolated island before they were rescued.

The National Road 102 from Beijing to Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province, was disrupted at the section in the territory of Xingcheng, and workers were rushing for the repair, according to Huludao City Government.

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2010)