Heavy rainfall hits Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province on Tuesday, vehicles that are washed away by the floods piled up on top of each other on the flooded roads. Photo: VCG

Flood disasters from January to October this year in China have affected 58.9 million people, with 590 people dead or missing, 3.5 million people needing emergency relocation and 203,000 houses collapsing, resulting in direct economic losses of 240.6 billion yuan. 

The statistics were reported by Zhou Xuewen, a deputy head of China's Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM), at a Monday's press conference marking the third anniversary of the ministry's establishment. In the light of more severe flood disasters this year, the MEM has launched 11 emergency responses to floods in various places to safeguard people's lives and property, including a second-level emergency response to floods in North China's Henan province which killed 302 and caused massive losses.  

In conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, the MEM has issued a total of 2.186 billion yuan in central relief funds for natural disasters and allocated 350,000 central relief supply items to meet the basic demands of affected people. 

The MEM said it has constructed an emergency rescue force system since it was established in 2018, including over 3000 professional rescue teams at national level specializing in disasters related to waters, mountains, earthquakes, air service, flood control, chemical events and other expertise. As local governments have built about 34,000 professional teams of over 1.34 million people, rescue capability and efficiency has been largely improved in the past few years. 

In addition, over 250,000 people from the China National Comprehensive Fire and Rescue Team were involved in nationwide flood control rescue operations, rescuing and relocating more than 200,000 people while assisting local governments with drainage, dredging and disinfection efforts. 

According to Zhou, local governments have been urgently repairing local infrastructure, processing the safety identification of damaged houses and harvesting autumn grain. At the same time, the MEM is helping local governments to draw up post-disaster recovery and reconstruction plans so that people can move into their new homes as soon as possible. Some provinces with better conditions should complete the reconstruction of collapsed houses before Spring Festival early in the next year, Zhou noted. 

The central relief funds for winter and next spring have been calculated prudently to support provinces struck by heavy rainfall. At the same time, central relief supplies including 237,000 quilts and cotton coats will have been allocated to some provinces before the onset of the cold wave.