Floods and landslides have left 3,185 people dead and more than 1,060 missing in China this year, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said Tuesday. Heavy rains have hit many Chinese provinces, including Gansu, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jilin, Jiangxi and Hubei, this year. As of Tuesday, about 230 million Chinese had been affected, according to Xinhua. Nearly 15.2 million people had been evacuated and 16.5 million hectares of crops had been affected. Direct economic losses stood at more than 350 billion yuan (51.4 billion U.S. dollars), according to figures released by the China National Committee for Disaster Reduction and the MCA. The ministries of finance and civil affairs had allocated more than 2 billion yuan of relief funds to the eight provinces hardest hit by the floods and landslides. Floods and landslides have caused chaos across the country this summer. A devastating mudslide in northwest China's Gansu Province earlier in August had killed at least 1,467 as of Monday, with 298 still missing. To cope with natural disasters in a more efficient and organized manner, the MCA has mapped out a regulation on natural disaster relief.
