Rain-triggered disasters force mass evacuations in China

WUHAN/CHONGQING, July 6 (Xinhua) -- More than 33,500 people have been evacuated after rain-triggered disasters hit China's Hubei Province and Chongqing Municipality, local authorities said Tuesday.

In central China's Hubei, downpours and other extreme weather since May have left 17 people dead or missing and forced the emergency evacuation of 13,500 people, the provincial emergency management department said. It added that nearly 2.1 million people were affected.

Rain-triggered disasters have also affected 175,700 hectares of crops, destroyed 1,700 houses and damaged 31,100 others.

In southwest China's megacity of Chongqing, more than 20,000 residents have been evacuated after torrential rains led to swollen rivers, the city's hydrologic station said.

Six rivers in Chongqing have seen water levels rise above the alert level after heavy rains battered the city on Monday and Tuesday.

After flood alerts, local officials and volunteers immediately evacuated residents in riverside and low-lying areas. No casualties have been reported, the city's emergency management bureau said.

The city has raised its emergency flood response to level III, the second-lowest in China's four-tier emergency response system.

Some riverside promenades and low-lying areas in Qijiang District were submerged in floodwater on Monday, reporters at the site said.

China's national observatory on Tuesday renewed a yellow alert for rainstorms in many parts of the country.

From Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon, heavy rain and rainstorms will likely hit Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Hainan, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Guangdong, and Fujian, the National Meteorological Center said.