Torrential rain affects 390,000 people in C China

CHANGSHA - Torrential rain lashed parts of central China's Hunan and Hubei provinces over the past two days, with flooding affecting at least 390,000 people.

In western and northern Hunan, heavy rain triggered flash floods, damaging mountain roads and raising the risk of landslides, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said Friday.

The storms, the heaviest this summer, brought over 160 mm of rainfall in some areas in just one day. In Yueyang, 47 small and medium-sized reservoirs overflowed.

Floods have affected 334,000 people in 13 counties and districts, toppling 46 houses and forcing the evacuation of 9,100 people.

Heavy rain is forecast to continue in Hunan in the next five days.

In Xianning of Hubei, rain-triggered power outages affected 30,000 households. But by Friday evening, power have been restored to 87 percent of the households.

In Chongyang county of Xianning, floods affected over 50,000 people and damaged around 4,660 hectares of crops. Meanwhile, 26 small reservoirs overflowed.

In Puge county of southwest China's Sichuan Province, rain-triggered landslides left two villagers dead and one missing early Friday morning. Four more were injured but were in stable condition after emergency treatment.