Rainstorms that have been affecting millions of people this week in south China continued to hit Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday and are expected to intensify in Hunan Province.

In Guangxi, precipitation exceeded 250 mm in three counties and 100 mm in another 39 between 8:00 PM on Wednesday and 2:00 PM on Thursday, and the rain will continue to hit the eastern and southern regions on Friday, said Gao Anning, chief engineer of the regional meteorological station.

The rain will continue through Saturday and will pose pressure to flood control in Wuzhou, a city near Guangxi's border with Guangdong Province. The city was ravaged by the worst flooding in 100 years in 2005.

The water level at the Wuzhou section of the Xijiang River was expected to surpass the warning level of 18 m on Thursday night or Friday morning, experts said.

A strong rainstorm was expected to hit neighboring Hunan Province on Thursday night and the water level of the Xiangjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, would surpass the warning level in the coming days, according to a flood prevention conference on Thursday afternoon.

The National Meteorological Center is forecasting that the rain will sweep across several provinces and municipalities, including Jiangsu, the quake-hit Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Zhejiang and Shanghai in the next few days.

Since late May, there has been heavy rain in south China, which caused floods, collapses, landslides and mudflows, as well as heavy losses of life and property.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2008)