At least 14 people were killed and two others remained missing after heavy rain triggered floods starting on Sunday in central China's Hunan and southwestern Guizhou provinces, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Wednesday.
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People wade through a flooded road in the downtown of Suining, central China's Hunan Province, June 9, 2009.
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Eight of the fatalities were in Guizhou and six in Hunan. The two missing people were also in Hunan, according to the ministry.
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, about 4 million people had been affected by the storm, with about 176,200 evacuated. The ministry said 13,495 rooms had collapsed and 32,728 had been damaged.
About 16,060 hectares of crops had been destroyed, and direct economic losses were estimated at 1.92 billion yuan (US$280.23 million), the ministry said.
The ministry sent a team Tuesday afternoon to Hunan to help with relief work. It also initiated a grade IV emergency response, which means a 24-hour alert, daily damage reports, and dispatching money and relief material within 48 hours.
