More rain forecast for southern China

The Juzizhou Islet scenic area in Changsha was closed on Tuesday. A flood peak on the Xiangjiang River reached Changsha at 6:22 pm on Wednesday, and the water level rose to 38.31 meters, 2.31 meters higher than warning level.

In Guangxi, local authorities said Wednesday rainfall had intensified since last Saturday, unleashing floods in nine cities in central and northern Guangxi, leaving one person missing while disrupting the lives of over 360,000 residents. The direct losses reached 743.96 million yuan.

Floods inundated the airport in the city of Wuyishan, East China's Fujian province, on Tuesday. When the water receded, some animals were left, such as snakes and fish. Workers drove them away before resuming operations.

In Jiangxi province, rains and floods affected 2.87 million residents, and about 326,000 were evacuated and 200,000 in urgent need of livelihood assistance in nine cities.

Rains and floods have affected some 1.82 million hectares of cropland, of which 264,000 croplands will see no output. A total of 942 rooms collapsed, and some 10,000 rooms were damaged.

China's disaster relief authority launched a level IV emergency response on Tuesday evening, as continuous rainstorms swelled water levels of rivers in some provinces, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Wednesday.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters dispatched four work teams to Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Guizhou to guide relief work, the ministry said.

Under a level IV emergency response, monitoring of emergencies will be stepped up and reported to the State Council.

More than 1,000 armed police officers have been dispatched to help with the flooding rescue and relief work over the past several days in southern China's Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

Local units of the armed police have been ordered to stand ready for more rescue and relief missions as parts of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi are expecting continuous heavy rain in the coming days.

Xinhua contributed to this story.