Drought affects over 3 mln people in Hubei  

湖北26县市出现旱情致328万余人受灾

6月20日14时，中国国家减灾委、民政部针对湖北省局部区域严重旱灾启动国家四级救灾应急响应。民政部救灾司副司长李保俊于20日下午带领工作组赴湖北省灾区查看灾情，指导开展救灾工作。

Wuhan (CNS) -- China's Ministry of Civil Affairs on Wednesday raised a national fourth-grade disaster alert in response to a severe drought in Hubei Province.

Li Baojun, a disaster relief official, led a team to the area to guide relief work.

According to local authorities, the northern area of Hubei has seen scant rainfall since December 2011. Some counties and cities have received 55 percent less precipitation than usual.

As of Wednesday, about 3.29 million people in 26 cities and counties had been affected by drought in the province. 1.17 million of them were in urgent need of help. 247,000 hectares of crops have been affected, of which 11,000 hectares cannot be harvested.