Ten people died and two were missing after rain lashed central China's Hubei Province from Sunday to Wednesday.

As of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the weather-triggered floods had forced 100,000 people to evacuate. Nearly 3 million people were affected, the Hubei Provincial Civil Affairs Department said.

About 11,500 houses had collapsed or were damaged. The weather had caused direct economic losses of more than 1.2 billion yuan (176 million US dollars) for the province.

Large swathes of crops were also destroyed.

From Sunday through Wednesday, the storms had hit many areas in Hubei, inundating residential communities, cutting off roads and damaging communications and power facilities in the worst hit Xiangfan and Enshi cities.

The urban area of Xiangfan City had precipitation of 280 mm from 2 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday. This was the heaviest storm to hit the city since meteorological records began in 1959, according to the local government.

Flooding inundated roads, street shops and factories in downtown Xiangfan. By Wednesday evening, the major roads had resumed normal traffic.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2008)