China scales up emergency response to flooding

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters scaled up its level-four emergency response to flooding on Sunday to include eight provincial-level regions.

East China's Jiangsu and southern China's Guangxi were newly added by the headquarters, following Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Guizhou provinces.

It sent two work teams to guide the flood control work in Hunan and Hubei provinces and Jiangxi and Anhui provinces, respectively.

The headquarters has instructed local authorities to step up monitoring and forecasts, ward off mountain torrents, waterlogging and other disasters, relocate those at risk in time, and go all-out in the rescue and relief work.

Meteorological departments forecast more rainfall over the next ten days in southern China and other areas.

China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level One representing the most severe response.