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Rainstorms will batter areas along the Yangtze River until Saturday, bringing floods as well as autumn coolness, the National Meteorological Center said on Thursday. East and Central China, including Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei and Anhui, are forecast to see strong rainstorms for the next two days. Some parts of North China will also be affected. On the weekend, Beijing will experience scattered, short but intense showers that may cause geological disasters. Its meteorological service warned against taking part in activities in mountain areas. On Thursday, five cities in Hubei triggered red alerts for heavy rain, the top level in a four-tier system. In Suizhou, electricity and water supply were cut off due to flooding. A video showed floodwater reaching the second story of some buildings. In Yicheng, 400 millimeters of precipitation within a day shattered the city's record, and in Xiangyang, firefighters rescued 84 residents from flooding, local media reported. Extreme weather conditions have affected 108,700 people in 13 county-level regions, damaged 8,110 hectares of crops and damaged or leveled over 3,600 houses, causing direct economic losses of 108 million yuan ($16.7 million), according to the province's emergency management department. Hubei's meteorological service warned that rain was expected during peak traffic hours and people who commute should be cautious when traveling across low-lying areas. It decided to raise its response level for the rainstorm from Level IV to III. China's emergency management watchdog has dispatched a working team to Hubei to help coordinate rescue and disaster relief work. Huang Ming, minister of emergency management, arranged the work via livestream. Huang asked the rescue team to make all-out efforts to rescue trapped people and race against time. He also urged grassroots forces to carry out inspections, promptly survey the situation in disaster-hit areas and plug disaster prevention loopholes. He told the team to resettle trapped people while carrying out epidemic control measures. On Wednesday, floodwaters on a road in Shanghai's Huangpu district reached a depth of 25 centimeters. Firefighters used pumps to drain the water, local media reported. Meanwhile in Anhui, flooding inundated farmland near Erlang, a town in Susong county, local media reported. The downpours will push the maximum temperature below 30 C in areas along the Yangtze River, lower than normal at this time of the year. The center said the constant rain along the Yangtze River is the result of cold air from Northeast China moving southward and meeting warm, wet air from South China. On Monday, Harbin, the capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, saw its daily average temperature drop to 19.8 C, likely marking the start of autumn, the center said. Heat will linger for the next few days in South China, with temperatures rising to 35 C. Hot, humid weather has scorched Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, for 48 days, more than the annual average of 27, the center said. Luo Wangshu and Xinhua contributed to this story.
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