China activates emergency response for rainstorms

BEIJING -- China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has launched an emergency response following the forecasting of heavy rainstorms in the southwestern parts of the country.

The Level IV emergency response, the least urgent of China's four-tier flood-control emergency response system, has been activated for Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

Three expert teams have been dispatched to guide flood prevention work in Chongqing, Sichuan, and Guizhou, the ministry said Thursday in a statement on its website.

The ministry urged local authorities in the four provincial regions to beef up efforts for monitoring and early warning and prepare for the timely transfer of residents living in affected areas.

Also on Thursday, the national observatory upgraded the rainstorm alert to orange alert, the second worst of the country's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, expecting rainstorms to hit regions including Taiwan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.