Natural disasters in China: Ministries allocate $75m for relief work

China's Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management on Saturday allocated 540 million yuan ($about 75.75 million) of funds to support local governments in disaster relief work related to floods, geological disasters and forest fires.

Specifically, 503 million yuan will go into supporting flood and geological disaster responses such as search, rescue and relocation of affected residents in nine provincial-level regions, including Hunan, Anhui and Jiangxi, while 37 million yuan will be allocated for forest fire response in Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Hi-tech rescue

China's growing technology sector is playing a significant role in the relief work. The country's emergency response authorities dispatched drones, helicopters and satellites to help with the rescue.

Drones are being used to relay network signals, maintaining communication in the affected area. Satellite imaging technology is employed to map out the flood zone, so decision-makers can plan the rescue based on real-time situation analysis.

Read more: Drones, satellites and helicopters: China battles Dongting dike breach

Maintaining market prices

China's Ministry of Commerce is also taking swift action to ensure the supply of essential goods to affected regions.

The ministry has been closely monitoring the prices of essential goods in Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Anhui and Hunan. In places experiencing severe flooding, 669 key enterprises have activated their emergency response plans. Some of the companies have increased their stockpiles by 10 to 30 percent above normal levels.

Additionally, local commerce authorities have organized enterprises to transport a total of 28,000 tons of essential goods, including rice, cooking oil, meat, vegetables, instant food and mineral water, to the most severely affected areas.

More rainstorms to come

The National Meteorological Center on Saturday issued a blue alert for rainstorms as heavy downpours are expected to lash parts of the country.

From Saturday morning to 8 a.m. Sunday, heavy rains are forecast to hit some provincial-level regions in northeast, northwest, central, east and southwest China, including Jilin, Shaanxi, Shandong, Anhui and Henan, the meteorological center said.

Some of these regions may experience heavy rainfall, with maximum hourly precipitation exceeding 60 millimeters, accompanied by thunderstorms and gales, according to the center.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

(With input from Xinhua.)