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More than 66.3 million Chinese have been affected by floods so far this summer, with 360 people killed and direct economic losses of 24.3 billion yuan, according to the latest figures from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Apart from 217,000 houses wholly or partially destroyed, more than 4.28 million hectares of grain crops have been damaged, with 2.03 million hectares decimated, said deputy director Cheng Dianlong.

Most of the deaths occurred after continuous downpours across the Jialing River Valley in southwest China's Sichuan Province that have resulted in floods in almost all the tributaries of Jujiang River, and triggered severe mountain torrents, mud-rock flows and landslides, he explained.

The ferocious floods battered 40 counties along their route, submerging the downtown areas of four counties and shattering two small water dams in a wave of destruction reminiscent of similar disasters in 2003.

Cheng warned that the situation across the Huaihe River Valley is at flashpoint with all branch rivers reporting dangerously high water levels.

To cope with the situation, the headquarters has launched a red-alert emergency reaction scheme, maneuvering upper-reach reservoirs to retain water and diverting streams into other waterways to weaken flood peaks.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who doubles as commander-in-chief of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, took part in an emergency conference on Tuesday morning where waterway authorities agreed to divert flood water from the Huaihe River to the adjacent Mengwa buffer zone, home to 150,000 people.

The buffer zone in Fuyang City of Anhui Province, expected to detain 750 million cubic meters of water, should bring relief to more than two million flood-hit residents in the upper-reaches of Henan and alleviate pressure downstream.

Up to 12,000 hectares of cropland inside the 180-square-kilometer Mengwa flood detention area has been damaged, inflicting direct economic losses of 1.06 billion yuan, the Xinmin Evening News reported Tuesday, saying that the emergency evacuation took only 48 hours.

Stressing that the move was "a prudent decision,” Hui told grass roots departments at the video conference that flood prevention across the Huaihe River must be organized "in a scientific, legal, and collaborative manner.”

He reiterated that local water authorities and governments must "strictly follow the orders of the headquarters, properly organize the evacuation of flood victims, provide subsistence to the evacuated, and actively detect dangerous situations on riverbanks and water dams.”

Cheng Dianlong said more than half a million people in Henan, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces along the river have been mobilized to patrol water dams and riverbanks in shifts to detect and prevent dangerous conditions. More than 80,000 local residents have been evacuated.

"People are putting up a difficult defense with the water level of the tributary Hongru River above the safety mark," Cheng said.

By Monday, the three provinces had reported 5.67 billion yuan of direct economic losses, nearly one quarter of the national total.

Zheng Guoguang, chief of the China Meteorological Administration, warned Tuesday that China has entered the flood season in which intense, continuous, torrential rain may happen at any time and typhoons are also a possibility.

"In July and August, rain belts will move around the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and central and western parts of Inner Mongolia, aggravating the risk of floods in some parts of the Yangtze," he said.

But hydrological data from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters showed the water levels of the Chuhe River, a tributary of the Yangtze, has started receding after hitting a risky height.

To prevent geological disasters such as landslides and mud-rock flows, the Ministry of Land and Resources decided Tuesday to dispatch seven work teams to mountainous areas in Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Guizhou where torrential rain is expected.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2007)