The Ministry of Civil Affairs says heavy rain has killed 14 people in southern China with 10 others still missing. Some 26,000 residents have also been evacuated because of the downpours.

Rainstorms deluged areas including Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces as well as Chongqing municipalities in the past week.

Some 3,100 houses have been reported collapsed, and nearly 840 square kilometers of crops destroyed. The direct economic loss is estimated at 1.6 billion yuan (U.S.$240 million).