At least 403 people have died, 105 missing and 3.17 million others relocated due to floods this summer in central and southern China even as a super typhoon was threatening to wreck havoc in eastern part of the country.
Millions strung across 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have been lashed by torrential rains and floods.
More than 13.5 million acres of grain crops have been damaged while 30,000 houses are partially or wholly destroyed.
Economic losses had risen to 31.9 billion yuan by yesterday (about USD 4.25 billion). The damages to hydrological projects amounted to nearly five billion yuan (about USD 667 million), deputy director of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, Cheng Dianlong said.
Meanwhile, tropical storm 'Man-Yi' has evolved into super typhoon on Thursday and is expected to lash at the south-eastern water of the East China Sea by Friday afternoon, the China Central Meteorological Station warned.
Meteorologists said that the typhoon, with its centre registering a maximum wind of 55 meters per second, may continue to strengthen.
The eastern coast of Taiwan, central and northern coasts of Zhejiang, the estuary of the Yangtze River and the west water of the East China Sea are expected to experience a wind scale of 9 to 12.
The wind scale in the areas swept by the centre of the Man-Yi may reach 13 to 17.
The Shanghai Meteorological Centre has alerted the residents of Zhejiang of the approaching typhoon which first formed into tropical storm on Monday from the east of the Philippines.
