MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - Six people were killed and almost 1 million affected as rainstorms have battered southern and eastern China over the past five days with at least seven typhoons expected to hit the country’s coastal areas this year, Xinhua said on Sunday.
Continuous strong rain that started in central China on Monday killed six people in the Hunan province. As of Saturday, rainstorms affected about 850,000 people, toppled more than 2,200 homes and forced 14,000 citizens to relocate, the agency said.
Heavy rainfall has also led to the flooding of major reservoirs and rivers.
Rainstorms have affected about 196,800 people in east China's Jiangxi Province, local authorities said.
The National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said on Sunday the number of typhoons this year is estimated between seven and nine.
Though the figures are similar to that of last year, typhoons are becoming more destructive due to climate change, Xinhua quoted NMEFC official Zhang Zhihua as saying.
"The typhoons coming this year are expected to have a bigger impact on coastal provinces like Zhejiang and Fujian which lie along the East China Sea," Li Benxia, another official with the center, told the agency.
