Rainstorms to hit S.and E.China

People stranded by floods are rescued by a helicopter in Liaoyang, Northeast China's Liaoning province, Aug 4, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Heavy rains will hit many areas in South and East China from Sunday to Tuesday with the approach of tropical storm Haikui, while stormy weather caused by dual typhoons Saola and Damrey continues to affect China's coastal regions, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said Sunday.

Downpours will sweep parts of Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangdong and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, as well as southern parts of some central and northern provinces over the next few days, the NMC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, rainstorms are expected to lash East China's coastal regions including Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai municipality on Monday and Tuesday, according to the NMC.

Haikui, the 11th typhoon of the year, was about 200 km away from Japan's southernmost Okinawa prefecture early Sunday morning, and was moving toward China's eastern coast in Zhejiang province at a speed of 20 km per hour.

The Zhejiang Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters issued a level-four emergency response to the typhoon on Sunday morning as it is expected to make landfall in coastal areas in the province around Tuesday.

Before the approaching Haikui, typhoons Damrey and Saola, which made landfalls in East China on Friday, had caused severe and widespread damage in seven, mostly coastal provinces in China, according to a statement from the National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Sunday.

The typhoons had left eight people dead and eight missing and forced the evacuation of about 1.3 million residents in provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Hebei and Liaoning as of 9 am Sunday, according to the statement.