Flooding and deadly landslides halt travel

Rescue workers save a pregnant woman from a flooded area in Tongren, Guizhou province, on Monday. Heavy rainstorms have caused flooding and landslides in the city's six districts and counties. [Photo by Ke Youchuan / For China Daily]

Flooding and deadly landslides closed highways and interrupted train and air travel as heavy rain in central and eastern China further raised the levels of the Yangtze River and its tributaries on Monday.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze could see water levels surpass warning levels, with rainstorms continuing to batter the river basin areas, according to the forecast by flood control authorities in Hubei province on Monday.

China Three Gorges Corp, which runs the world's largest hydropower station, is fully prepared for possible challenges and flooding that might occur along the upper reaches of the Yangtze, said Wang Yuhua, deputy chief engineer at the company's cascade dispatch and communication center.

"Due to the heavy rainfall this year, we need better prediction of weather conditions well in advance so we can better rearrange work to deal with the flooding," he said. "Normally, the longer the period in which we are able to forecast, the better we can schedule the reservoirs."

The situations in the middle and lower reaches of the river were still serious.

The rainstorms have triggered landslides as well as flooding in Anhui, Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou provinces, forcing railway companies to cancel at least 53 scheduled trains, according to railway bureaus in Chengdu, Wuhan, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The cancellations stranded thousands of passengers at railway stations in Huaihua and Xiangtan in Hunan province, as railway companies were forced to close the lines due to damage from the rainstorms.

The heavy rain also triggered a number of landslides in Anhui, Hubei and Guizhou provinces.

In Hubei, a landslide hit a village in Qichun county on Monday morning, burying four people. Rescue efforts were hampered by blocked roads, which made it difficult for large machinery to enter the affected area.

In Tongcheng, Guizhou, a landslide hit five houses early on Monday morning and buried seven people.

In Anhui, landslides triggered by rainstorms had killed at least six people in Jinzhai county as of Sunday evening, local media reported.

Hou Liqiang, Lyu Chang and Zhou Lihua contributed to this story.