At least 15 people have been killed and one remained missing in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region due to rain-triggered natural disasters, the local civil affairs authority said on Wednesday.

Two more people were found killed by lightning strikes and landslides Wednesday after a new round of heavy rain hit 18 counties.

More than 38,000 people have been resettled and a total of 831,200 residents in the 18 counties were affected by various natural disasters.

The total number of disaster-affected people in Guangxi has risen to 2.9 million since June 6 when rainstorms started to pelt the region.

Local governments are working to provide food, clothes and housing to the people and prevent a breakout of epidemics.

The overall death toll caused by week-long torrential rains and devastating natural disasters in southern China rose to 76 on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In the town of Huangjin, Guangdong Province, people finally got rice supplies after being besieged by floods for five days.

Trucks transported 35 tons of rice to the town Wednesday morning after the submerged roads were cleared. Each family was allocated with a certain amount of rice according to the household population. The rice is far less than enough and people are expecting more to come soon.

It will take at least three days to completely restore electricity supply. Villagers have been drinking rainwater over the past four days as the drinking water supply hasn't been restored, according to village head Peng Hantang.

However, villagers have started rebuilding and cleaning their houses as the flood has retreated.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2007)