Flood-related fatalities fall amid efforts

The more than 140,000 rescuers who have been mobilized have saved 38,077 people in danger and evacuated another 109,000.

Yang said the decrease in the number of rooms demolished by floods show that the anti-disaster capability of people's houses has been greatly enhanced as governments of different levels pay increasingly greater attention to infrastructure construction.

The declines of fatalities and demolished rooms occurred as the second-highest amount of precipitation in nearly six decades fell in southern parts of the country from June 1 to July 28.

During that period, southern parts of the country on average received 436 millimeters of precipitation, 18 percent more than normal and the second highest since 1961, according to the National Climate Center.

"After entering plum rain season, the southern regions were frequented by rainstorms. …Many areas experienced record-high precipitation," the center said.

The season refers to a long period of continuous rainy or cloudy weather that often occurs in June and July as plums ripen in regions around the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The two reaches of the Yangtze, for example, were battered by an all-time high precipitation of 617 millimeters from June 1 to July 28, 65 percent more than usual, it said.

It said the largest daily precipitation so far this rainy season occurred in Yangshuo county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, with 327 millimeters, or about 60 percent of the annual average precipitation in Beijing.