China has mobilised troops to help with flood relief and raised its disaster alert to the highest level after days of downpours forced the evacuation of more than half a million people in central and southern provinces.
The official China Daily said more than 555,000 people had been evacuated in seven provinces and a municipality after rains in recently drought-stricken areas caused floods and mudslides in the Yangtze river basin.
Authorities have raised the disaster alert to the highest level 4, and the government is describing the floods in some areas, such as eastern Zhejiang province's Qianting river area, as the worst since 1955.
Local media said two dykes in the village areas of Zhuji in Zhejiang province were breached yesterday, flooding two towns and 21 villages.
In the flood-hit Banshan and Moshan villages on the outskirts of Zhuji, hundreds of people had been evacuated, but many have since returned to guard their homes and belongings.
"For us now, we will be worried if we leave our homes. That's why we are still staying here. Yesterday, the water level was receding slowly so we came back to clean up our house," said Jie Jingping (49).
Other villagers said life was difficult for some residents who were still trapped deep inside the village by the flood waters as aid distribution has been slow.
"Some [people] did not even get any relief items. There is no electricity and you get bitten by mosquitoes all the time," said Shou Pengfei (25).
"To be frank, those rescue boats cannot go through those narrow lanes inside the village. A lot of them depend on their relatives rowing small wooden boats to get to them.... It is hard to help these people inside there," he added.
State media said that, as of last night, floods caused by the most recent four days of rain had resulted in 19 deaths and left seven missing in Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and Chongqing municipality.
The official death toll caused by floods and mudslides since June 3rd has not been updated since Wednesday when state media said 105 people had been killed and 65 were missing.
Reuters