Central China Flooding: Over 200 villages inundated following heavy rains

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Heavy rains have pounded central China over the past few days. This has led to heavy economic losses to the villagers in the province of Hunan. More rains are expected in the next couple of days, which local authorities believe could worsen the current situation and narrow their window of hope. CGTN's Li Jianhua visited one of the hardest hit villages.

This used to be a village with farmland and crops.

Now it's more like a lake after heavy rains and severe flooding and even some dam breaks.

The only way in and out of the village is by boat.

Now 12 boats and over 30 military personnel are working day and night to send in supplies and move people in and out.

HUANG XIANG RESCUE CREW MEMBER "The water yesterday was around 4 metres deep. It has now gone down by one metre. Part of the challenge is the flooded area is quite expansive. And the people trapped are scattered. There are power outages, and the communication networks are totally down. Many villagers are not reachable, and we have to search for people house by house."

Despite the damage to their houses and power outages, many villagers choose to stay put to keep their property safe.

While we searched through the village on a boat, one villager was calling for help.

HE JIANZHONG VILLAGER "There used to be some crops around my house and I had a tea garden behind it. I'm staying put because I have some things in my home that I need to take care of. And I need to take out some receipts I need for my company, among other things."

Many, whose houses are totally flooded and destroyed, have been relocated to higher ground.

And things are looking up a bit since the rain stopped.

LIU TAO HEAD OF NPC, XIALIU TOWNSHIP "This has been the most severe flood since 1994 according to the villagers. The dam broke because of the heavy rains. In the next few days, it's likely to rain heavily again. We'll organize the local authorities to search through the region and the broken dam. And we'll search through the houses submerged in the water to reduce damage."

This is one of the more than 200 villages affected around this area.

And 27-thousand people's lives have borne the brunt of the heavy rains.

The floods are receding but more rains are expected in the next few days. LJH, CGTN, HENGYANG, HUNAN PROVINCE.