China reports 141 dead or missing in flooding since June

Yangtze River region has seen its second highest rainfall in more than a half-century so far this year as dely flooding strikes much of China.

Around 28,000 homes have been damd and 141 people have died or are missing in floods since last month.

Virtually all of mainland China has been affected, excluding vast far western areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang, according to Vice Minister of Emergency Manment Zheng Guoguang.

Yangtze, Asia's longest river, and parts of its watershed have seen second highest rainfall since 1961 over past six months, Zheng told reporters.

Dam has been estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars, ding to pressure on an ecomy deeply impacted by coronavirus pandemic, including virus-related shutdowns and loss of overseas markets.

Hubei province, through which Yangtze flows and famed for its numerous lakes and rivers, is under particular threat. province's capital Wuhan was epicenter of China's virus outbreak, which appears to have largely been contained.

floodwaters have inundated towns across sourn and central China and prompted emergency workers to shore-up embankments and dig channels to release overflow. Flood surges on 433 rivers have exceeded warning level and 33 of m hit record highs, Zheng said. Apart from Yangtze, or major rivers systems and lakes have been rising, including Yellow River in rth, Zhujiang in south and Taihu, China's largest freshwater lake just west of Shanghai.

Flooding in some areas last week forced rescheduling of portions of crucial four-day national college entrance exams that h alrey been delayed for a month because of coronavirus outbreak.

Key tourist destinations in China’s south have sustained flood dam that is compounding financial stress caused by massive drop-off in numbers of visitors.