Floods kill 2, affect thousands in China's Yunnan

KUNMING -- Torrential rain since June 6 has battered Southwest China's Yunnan province, killing two and affecting the lives of 327,600 people until July 4, local authorities said Monday.

As of July 4, a total of 874 residents had been relocated after floods hit 269 townships in 16 prefectures and cities in the province, and crops on 21,490 hectares were affected, according to the province's emergency management office.

Yunnan has upgraded flood control emergency plans in 95 cities of the province. So far, 986 flood drills have been carried out in the province.

China on Sunday night upgraded the alert level for rainstorms to orange and raised emergency response from level IV to level III, as heavy rain is forecast to batter parts of the country, the China Meteorological Administration said.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.