In contrast to the thirst in the north, at least 10 central and southern provinces are on flood alarms Wednesday.

A boy and a bus wade through a flooded street in Lujiang County, east China's Anhui Province June 30, 2009.

Parts of Hubei Province have been hit by the worst rainstorm in 100 years, with daily rainfall reaching 313 mm in Hefeng County alone. Nearly 10,000 residents were evacuated when a dam burst Tuesday, the local government said.

Heavy rain began to hit the central province Sunday and has flooded 45 counties in 12 cities as of 10 am Wednesday. Five people were confirmed dead and one was reported missing.

Rainstorms have flooded streets and swollen lakes and rivers in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and the Chongqing and Shanghai municipalities. In Chongqing alone, six people were confirmed dead in the rainstorm and subsequent geological accidents.

Two northeastern provinces were also plagued by extreme weather, with 780 homes and 372,000 hectares of cropland destroyed by heavy rain as of Wednesday. The provincial water resources department said Heilongjiang had 157.1 mm of rainfall in June, nearly twice the average monthly volume.

In another development, hailstones hit the northeastern Liaoning Province early Tuesday afternoon, and gales felled a tree, killing a passing pedicab driver and his junior high-school passenger who was on her way to school.