Tens of millions of residents across China on Wednesday were grappling with the threat or aftermath of disastrous floods that have killed at least 131 people in the past two weeks.
China's flood season is notoriously deadly. At least 360 people have died in floods and related disasters across the country this summer and more than 4 million hectares (15,440 sq miles) of crops had been destroyed. About 10,000 People's Liberation Army troops were on standby to battle the worst flood on the Huai River - flowing through densely populated areas in central and eastern China - since 1954, state media said. Authorities diverted water from the Huai, home to about 100 million people along its entire length, to flood dozens of evacuated villages in the eastern province of Anhui on Tuesday to ease pressure. The 180 square kilometre area, home to 157,800 people, would suffer economic losses of 600 million yuan from destroyed crops, fish farms, roads and other infrastructure, Xinhua news agency said. Water levels remained at alarming levels today despite the release and the flooding of another three similar rural "flood reserve areas", state television said. The swollen Hongze Lake in the downstream province of Jiangsu was expecting 230 billion cubic metres of water, or six times its normal capacity, from the Huai, prompting the opening of an 163-km emergency canal to discharge floodwater to the Yellow Sea.