Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the military to deploy more troops to support flood control and disaster relief in central China's Wuhan city which has faced severe flooding from Yangtze River following torrential rains.
While praising the role of military in recent disaster relief in the rain hit areas where 128 people have been killed, Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) the top military body, ordered to send more troops to the affected areas for disaster relief based on new flooding situation.
The rain has led to the collapse of 41,000 houses and forced the evacuation of more than 1.34 million people in Hubei province.
Nearly 6,00,000 people are in urgent need of basic living assistance.
Meanwhile, Wuhan, which has about 10 million residents, faced severed flooding following days of rain which has stopped traffic, cut power and water supplies and trapped people in their homes in many parts of the city.
The downpour has caused severe water logging as local rivers, lakes and reservoirs have swollen, leading to closure of a tunnel across the Yangtze as well as some subway stations and underground passages, according to local traffic authorities, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
In the last 24 hours the precipitation in the city proper reached 180 millimeters and the district of Caidian received 206 millimeters of rain.
Some 560 millimeters of rain fell on the city in the past week, the largest weekly precipitation since records began, according to the local meteorologic observatory.
Floods have made 206 sections of road inaccessible to traffic and caused the suspension of 113 bus routes.
Twenty-three trains have been canceled and 30 delayed. Buses and taxis were taken out of the roads due to flooding, Wuhan Railway Bureau said.
More than 4,000 police officers and workers are pumping away flood waters, as well as ensuring the safety of pedestrians and vehicles.
Firefighters have rescued more than 100 people trapped by water.
Over 16,000 people whose lives were threatened by fragile dikes were relocated from Caidian District to safety yesterday.
Water supplies have been cut off in two residential communities, one of which also experienced a power blackout.
Provincial meteorological authorities said Nepartak, the first typhoon of the year, contributed to the torrential rain in Wuhan and other regions in the eastern part and Jianghan Plain of Hubei since Tuesday.
