2010-07-14 14:04

NANCHANG - More than 10,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in east China's Jiangxi Province Wednesday morning after heavy rainfalls triggered flash floods and overtopping of three reservoirs, flood control authorities said.

The intense rainfall hit the province's northern areas early Wednesday, triggering flash floods and swollen reservoirs.

Water has spilled over dikes at three reservoirs in Poyang County, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said.

Workers are rushing to dig and widen emergency waterways to lower the water levels in the swollen reservoirs.

No casualties have been reported so far, according to the headquarters.

Jiangxi's meteorological department Wednesday morning issued a red alert -- the highest level -- warning of the torrential rains.

Heavy downpours in parts of central and eastern China have caused waterlines in major lakes and tributaries of the Yangtze River to rise to alarming levels.

In east China's Anhui Province Wednesday, soldiers used explosives to blast part of a leaking dike on a swollen branch of the Yangtze River, preventing the flooding of riverbank villages.

Apart from central and eastern provinces, heavy rainfall has also pounded parts of western China's Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Chongqing and Yunnan regions, according to the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

The NMC Wednesday morning reiterated its orange alert -- the second highest level warning -- for the storms, saying the rains would continue through to Thursday.

China has a four-color coded rainstorm warning system. Red is the most serious level, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Parts of China experience heavy rains every summer, but this year's rains have been particularly devastating.

Since the beginning of July, torrential rains and severe flooding has left 107 people dead, 59 missing and forced the evacuation of nearly one million people in ten Chinese provinces, mostly along the Yangtze River, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Tuesday.