China ends flood emergency response in NE provinces

The state of emergency declared in northeast China more than a month ago as the region suffered severe flooding, was ended on Friday.

As of 5 a.m. Friday, water levels in the Heilongjiang, Nenjiang and Songhua rivers had all dropped below their warning level, enabling the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters to call off the flood emergency response.

It said on its website that the major task now would be to improve recovery and relief efforts, which would be "arduous."

The Heilongjiang River has been up since mid-August, with some sections of its middle and lower reaches seeing their worst floods in history. The water levels of Nenjiang River and Songhua River have also exceeded their warning level for weeks.

The rainstorms which triggered the floods, one of the worst in decades, left at least 85 dead in northeastern Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, causing crop failure and billions of yuan in direct economic losses.