Over the past week, storms have wreaked havoc across China, which battles summer floods every year along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and other waterways. Weather forecasters are warning that the heavy rains are headed north this week.

On Monday, the rain belt should move over most of northeast China, the Huaihe and Yellow river areas, the Hanshui River and parts of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, said Yang Keming, a senior engineer with the Central Meteorological Observatory. Thunderstorms or torrential rains will hit some areas.

It is hoped that the rainfall will relieve the heat and drought that have been plaguing much of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

However, meteorologists warned that several consecutive days of rainfall have raised water levels in some of the rivers and reservoirs in both the north and south to their limits. Residents of these areas are urged to be alert to the risk of floods.

Some areas in the south, like the drainage area of the Huaihe and Hanshui rivers and south of the Yangtze River, are expected to become hot and dry, with temperatures rising to 35 degrees Celsius or higher in the next 10 days.

On Saturday, about 3,000 passengers had to remain in the Beijing West Railway Station after a dozen trains were delayed due to the heavy rain in Heze, Shandong Province. All the trains were bound for southern cities along the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, reports said.

From last Friday through weekend, heavy rain and thunderstorms hit areas between the Yellow River and Huaihe River, resulting in floods on the Shaying and Hongru rivers, two tributaries of the Huaihe in central China's Henan Province. The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters reported that nearly 7,700 residents were moved over the weekend from two areas used to divert floodwaters from the tributaries of the Huaihe.

The flood diversion areas are utilized to ensure the safety of the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and cities downstream. The two designated areas can hold 407 million cubic meters of diverted floodwater and have a combined population of 174,500 people.

More than 89,000 people have been sent to fight the floods under the direction of a working group dispatched by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The storms have dumped more than 430 millimeters of water over central China. Some 340 millimeters drowned the area on Friday alone, causing the Li and Lesser Honghe rivers to overflow their banks in some places.

Rain lashed the area around the city of Luohe in Henan Province for several days, pushing local river levels to record highs. No injuries or deaths have been reported, but 64,000 people were affected and more than 100,000 soldiers and residents were scrambling to brace against the torrents.

On Friday, a tropical storm that hit Hong Kong with winds of up to 60 kilometers per hour injured two people and shut down one of Asia's top financial centers, reports said.

In another development, floods are threatening wide tracts of the 4,000-meter-high Tibetan Plateau after rainfall in some areas hit record highs. More than 31,000 people in 34 counties in Tibet have been affected by flooding. Recent storms have caused at least three deaths in the region.

Floods caused by prolonged storms had left five people dead and 11 missing in Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, southwestern China's Yunnan Province, by Sunday evening.

Transportation and communications in Pianma town, on the border region between Yunnan and Myanmar, have been interrupted, with four people dead and 11 missing. The flood destroyed 129 houses and three wood plants and submerged 20 vehicles. A mudslide also killed a student in Gongshan County.

Storms buffeted the prefecture constantly from July 1 to July 18. The water level in Liuku Reservoir reached 810.0 meters by Sunday morning, 1.8 meters above the warning line.

Further details about the situation of the disaster will be known Monday, said Xie Yi, head of the prefecture.

Rainstorms are forecast to continue in the prefecture in the next three days.

(China Daily and Xinhua July 19, 2004)