195,000 people evacuated in rainstorms in east China province

HEFEI, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Rainstorms in east China's Anhui Province have left 811,000 residents affected and forced the evacuation of 195,000 people, local authorities said Sunday.

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, rainstorms had wreaked havoc in 35 counties and districts in six prefecture-level cities in Anhui, according to the provincial emergency management department.

The Yangtze River, China's longest river, has seen water levels in its Anhui section exceed their warning marks, and levels continue to rise. Torrential rains have also pushed waters above their alert levels in another 19 rivers in the province.

Torrential rains lashed a large swathe of the province in the 24 hours to 5 p.m. Sunday, with 258 stations receiving precipitations exceeding 100 mm with the largest being 255 mm.

In emergency response to rainstorms and flooding, authorities in eight cities in Anhui, including five cities along the Yangtze River, have sent a total of 26,000 people to patrol dikes.

In the next 24 hours to 8 p.m. Monday, torrential rains are forecast to continue in regions along and south of the Yangtze River, according to the Anhui meteorological center.

China's Yangtze River is experiencing its 2024 "No.1 Flood," according to the Ministry of Water Resources, as water levels at the Jiujiang hydrological station in Jiangxi Province, one of the major monitoring sites for main stream water levels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, have risen to 20 meters, reaching their warning level at 2 p.m. Friday.

The ministry raised the emergency flood response level to Level III in the provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan on Friday, and urgently dispatched four additional working teams to provide guidance for flood relief efforts.