China steps up emergency rescue, disaster relief in rain-hit Henan

China on Thursday stepped up its emergency rescue and disaster relief efforts in the central province of Henan, where record rainstorms wreaked havoc.

Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) deployed another team of 510 firefighters with expertise in water rescue to the flood-hit regions from five provinces and cities, together with 64 remote water supply trucks and 50 rubber boats, reported Xinhua.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the MEM coordinated with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration and dispatched flood control supplies such as assault boats, life jackets, electric generators and pumps to Henan to support local flood control and emergency rescue work.

The headquarters also stressed making every effort in flood control, emergency rescue and disaster relief to effectively ensure people's safety and property.

Henan and other regions have been severely stricken by floods. The headquarters also dispatched a work team to the city of Xinxiang on Thursday, parts of which suffered heavy rainstorms, reported Xinhua.

The team worked with local authorities to dispatch boats and bridges to rescue local villagers and visited the city of Dengfeng to inspect damages to houses and infrastructure and the work of personnel transfer and resettlement.

It urged relevant local authorities to speed up water draining, solve the problem of communication and transportation disruptions and allocate and distribute materials in flood-stricken areas, to ensure the basic livelihood of people affected by the disaster.

Torrential rain has affected about 3 million people in central China's Henan Province, with 33 reported dead and eight still missing as of 4 am Thursday, local authorities said.

Rainwater has damaged more than 215,200 hectares of crops, causing a direct economic loss of about 1.22 billion yuan (about 188.6 million US dollars).