China is stepping up disaster relief efforts as the country continues to see more floods and unusually heavy downpours this summer, officials said Monday. Floods that triggered alerts have been observed in 433 rivers nationwide since June. Zheng Guoguang, vice minister of Emergency Management said the average rainfall in regions along the Yangtze River this year has been the highest since 1961, 51 percent more than the amount in other years. As of 7 a.m. Monday, floods in 27 provincial regions had affected a population of 38.73 million, leaving 141 people dead or missing, and more than 2.24 million emergency relocations. Around 29,000 homes were destroyed, and direct economic losses reached 86.16 billion yuan (about 12.31 billion U.S. dollars).
