HONG KONG, July 9 (RIA Novosti) - At least 94 people have died and 25 have been reported missing as the result of flooding in seven Chinese provinces, the Xinhua news agency said Monday.
More than 16 million people live in the affected areas, and authorities have evacuated more than 500,000. The western provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing and Shaanxi were hit hardest.
In addition to some 49,000 homes destroyed, torrential rains that began June 28 have flooded more than 1.2 million hectares of farmland, resulting in some $250 million in damages to local agriculture.
Overall damage has been estimated at more than $500 million, Xinhua reported.