Changde City, Hunan Province, central China - June 24, 2017
1. Flooded residential house, rescuers evacuating residents by boat
2. Flooded residential house
3. Various of rescuers evacuating residents

Huayuan County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, central China - June 24, 2017
4. Various of flooded houses
5. Rescuers evacuating resident
6. Resident walking in deep flood water
7. Flood water
8. Flood water flowing out of shops
9. Various of inundated vehicles

Taoyuan County, Changde City, Hunan Province, central China - June 24, 2017
10. Various of rescuers evacuating stranded people
11. Various of rescuers removing stranded vehicle

Mayang County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province, central China - June 24, 2017
12. Various of flood water
13. Vehicle driving in flood water
14. Shop along flooded street
15. People transferring appliance from shop
16. Various of vehicles driving on flooded road

Taojiang County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province, central China - June 24, 2017
17. Various of flooded buildings
18. Flooded street
19. Man walking in flood
20. Flooded store along street
21. Various of people transporting goods with rubber boat

Continuous heavy rain battered central China's Hunan Province last week, causing serious flooding and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

Heavy rain that started Thursday swept Changde City. In the city's Dingcheng District alone, 103,000 people had been affected and around 2,100 residents relocated as of Saturday morning. The rain has caused a direct economic loss of more than 57 million yuan.

A 100-meter highway section in Taoyuan County, Changde City, was flooded Saturday, with three people in two vehicles stranded in waist-high flood water. Local firefighters rushed to the site and rescued the stranded people with the help of a safety rope. And the vehicles were also removed from the water.

Local authorities are carrying out disaster evaluation and rescue operation. Several anti-flood teams were set up to patrol at the city's 30 reservoirs.

Also, continuous rain has affected 92,700 people and 3,600 hectares of crops in Huayuan County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Around 4,200 locals have been evacuated and relocated. No casualties were reported so far due to the timely evacuation.

Also, Huaihua City issued a red alert, the highest-level of China's four-tier warning system, for rainstorms Saturday afternoon. The rain has affected 78 townships in the city, damaging roads and disrupting people's travel.

And heavy rain that started Friday morning battered Mayang County, with the maximum precipitation exceeding 169 millimeters as of Saturday noon.

Streets in the center of the county were seriously flooded, affecting over 600 shops on the two sides.

Yiyang City was also among the worst-affected areas in Hunan Province. In the city's Taojiang County, 33,470 people had been affected and 3,134 relocated as of 13:00 Saturday. The rain collapsed 66 houses, with no casualties reported.

The country started anti-flood emergency response and strengthened patrol at areas vulnerable to flash floods and geological disasters.