A rescue boat is seen in a flooded field in Rongshui County, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on July 4, 2009. Floods caused by rainstorms since early the week have left four people missing and 11,845 others displaced in Guangxi. The torrential rains have also damaged 12,440 hectares of crops and killed 53,300 heads of cattle. [Xinhua]

Rainstorms continued to wreak havoc in south China, leaving more people dead or missing and displacing hundreds of thousands.

Five people have been killed and two others remain missing after severe rainstorms lashed southeast Fujian Province starting on Wednesday.

As of 5:00 PM on Saturday, torrential rain had affected 180,000 people in Fujian, and forced 22,000 of them to evacuate, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said.

Flooding damaged 12,690 hectares of crops and 25 km of embankment. It also led 64 businesses to close and 420 houses to collapse.

The rainstorms incurred a direct economic loss of 242 million yuan (US$35.4 million).

The provincial meteorological bureau Friday issued a yellow alert, the third-highest, for torrential rains.

Downpours had affected more than 30 counties in Fujian, with maximum rainfall of 100 mm as of 6:00 AM on Saturday.

Authorities have sent text messages to more than one million residents on precautions against heavy rainstorms.

Heavy rains pelted 28 counties in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, forcing 144,100 residents to leave their homes and damaging 38,190 hectares of crops and 21,033 houses.

Half of Rongshui county seat suffered flooding and power cuts after the Rongjiang River overflowed its banks.

In Luocheng county, the Kama Reservoir flooded, and the water flow from the spillways destroyed a 13.5-meter section of a dyke near the base of the reservoir dam.

Luocheng County Government Friday organized the evacuation of 7,509 people living downstream from the reservoir for fear that the dam might collapse.

Sixteen temporary shelters were provided for 6,231 of the evacuees, and the other 1,278 went to live with relatives.

More than 100,000 residents in eastern province of Jiangxi have been made homeless and 10,000 houses collapsed. Rainstorms also disrupted traffic, caused landslides and cut power supply.

Torrential rains also killed eight and relocated 140,000 in the central province of Hunan.

Parts of Hunan had received more than 200 millimeters of precipitation and this has caused water levels in many rivers and dams to rise to alarm levels.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2009)