Millions hit by China flooding

Thousands have been evacuated from their homes in several provinces

XI'AN, China -- More than 200 people have died in some of China's worst flooding in years, which has affected more than 30 million people across the country, with waters now seeping towards the capital Beijing, according to authorities.

Deaths have been reported in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou provinces and in Chongqing municipality following rains that have damaged 9 million acres of farmland, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

Officials say 205 people have been killed, scores are missing, while 210,000 residents have been evacuated in one province alone, with crops and homes destroyed after a week of rains.

Chinese authorities expect the death toll to rise as land and mudslides hamper rescue efforts across the country.

The central government in Beijing has ordered relief aid be sent into the hardest-hit region of Shaanxi, where the death toll has risen to 200, and 266 people have been reported as missing.

AUDIO Deputy Director of the Red Cross in China Yang Hui-Xin explains that parts of China are bracing for more floods 2.68 MB / 2 mins 7 secs WAV sound    CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

The region is bracing for more devastation as floodwaters reach suburban Beijing. Chinese authorities have ordered a relief agency be set up in case the flooding reaches the capital.

While floods often plague China in summer, the current deluge has raised fears of a repeat of 1998, when the most devastating downpour in half a century killed more than 4,000 people and inundated 240,000 square kilometers (92,000 square miles) of farmland in China's rice bowl.

Melting snow

The deluge has even affected the normally arid northwestern region of Xinjiang where officials reported some of the worst flooding in decades.

Some 500 houses have collapsed and more than 1,600 hectares of crops are damaged, Xinhua said.

Faster than usual melting of mountain snow in the relatively impoverished region exacerbated flooding which caused more than $2.65 million in damage in the Turpan prefecture alone Friday and Saturday, the agency said.

It quoted the Xinjiang flood control office as saying such rainfall had "rarely been seen in the region in recent decades."

Areas around Hanzhong, about 560 miles southwest of Beijing, were submerged under five feet of water.

The Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Education and Water Resources have provided money, medicine and supplies to stricken areas, Xinhua said.

Other official aid included 8 million yuan ($970,000) in relief funds to Shaanxi, it said.

Banned tree felling

China has been striving to limit the potential of floods to bring chaos and destruction to the country.

The government has banned tree felling, urged farmers to plant trees and pushed ahead with projects like the mammoth Three Gorges Dam, which Beijing says will help control floods.

On Tuesday, Xinhua said the army formed special units to develop special skills to fight torrential floods.

These units would be responsible for anti-flood activities along seven major rivers including the Yangtze, Yellow, Huai, Hai, Songhua-Liao, Pearl and Min Rivers, it said.

In 1998 when floods hit and destroyed parts of China, about 300,000 soldiers took part in disaster relief but some did not have the proper professional skills and equipment, according to the China Daily newspaper.

China's central provinces of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi have been heavily hit by rain since the beginning of April and some tributaries of China's longest river have risen to levels that are beginning to cause concern.

Although there has been a slight downgrading of the possibility of an El Nino weather effect forming in the Pacific this year, the Chinese are still worried.

The last El Nino, which affected China in 1997, brought prolonged droughts and high temperatures in north China in 1998 and catastrophic floods in the Yangtze region.

El Nino weather events, formed by interaction between abnormal Pacific sea temperatures and the atmosphere have wreaked havoc in the past in China.