The official death toll from the massive floods that have plagued China this summer climbed past 2,000 on Thursday, and authorities have warned that the worst may be yet to come.
About one-fifth of China's population -- 240 million people -- are said to be affected by the floods, which are the result of unusually heavy rains that arrived earlier than expected this spring. Most of the deaths have been blamed on landslides and mudflows caused by torrential rains that have fallen since early June.
The Beijing government has issued ``do or die'' proclamations to its army and citizens, exhorting them to closely monitor and shore-up hundreds -- if not thousands -- of weakened levees that threaten to collapse and inundate farms and cities.
Last weekend two secondary levees collapsed while hundreds of soldiers and residents were working on them, sweeping an undetermined number of people to their deaths. The government has launched an orchestrated campaign to destroy some of the dikes along the Yangtze River's uppermost stretches in hopes of relieving some of the pressure on downstream levees protecting large industrial and municipal areas.
The Yangtze -- the world's third largest river -- has kept the pressure on, with water levels along many stretches at their highest levels since 1954, when floods killed 30,000 people. A fourth major flood crest has been working its way down the river, and officials are concerned that waterlogged levees will begin to fail under the constant stress.
Flooding has been complicated by the arrival of tropical storm Otto which, although downgraded earlier in the week from typhoon status, still reached mainland China with strong winds and heavy rains.
Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Fan Baojun said nearly 14 million people have been forced to abandon their homes, and that nearly six million homes have been destroyed by the flood waters. Additionally, he said 53.2 million acres of farmland have been inundated and 11.8 million acres of crops destroyed.
Several regions of the country are being hammered by flood waters, including central Hubei province, southern Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, as well as northern regions along the border with Mongolia.
Officials also are concerned about the usual procession of typhoons that make their way to China each year -- one or two major storms could force river tides up-channel and simultaneously deliver heavy rains, a combination that could destroy already weakened levees.