Floods following continuous rainstorms this week have claimed at least 38 lives and left 34 other missing in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Tuesday.

Houses comprising 48,000 rooms were toppled and more houses were damaged, according to the ministry's latest statistics.

The rainstorms since Aug. 24 have seriously affected the province's traffic, communication, power and water resource facilities.

The ministries of civil affairs and finance have allocated 20 million yuan (2.4 million US dollars) of special funds to provide relief for people evacuated from flood-affected areas.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has launched emergency measures to send 6,500 reserve tents to the disaster areas.

A working team led by Yang Yanyin, vice minister of Civil Affairs, has arrived in the disaster areas to guide relief work inthe province.

(Xinhua News Agency   Sep 3, 2003)