Staff members of a power supply company discuss a plan for power restoration at a transformer substation. [Photo/Xinhua]

Meanwhile, continuous rainstorms have affected 360,700 people in 14 counties, districts and cities in central China's Hubei Province since Wednesday, the provincial civil affairs department said.

As of 2 p.m. on Thursday, about 36,950 hectares of cropland had been damaged and 145 houses had collapsed, resulting in direct economic losses of 67.79 million yuan (10.9 million U.S. dollars), it said.

The provincial capital Wuhan was inundated on Thursday, with maximum precipitation exceeding 100 mm in the downtown areas.