Hubei suffers floods, drought  

湖北长江防汛形势趋缓 局部旱情加剧

1日8时，三峡水库下泄流量减少到3.5万立方米每秒。预计湖北长江中游各站水位将逐步回落，长江防汛形势趋缓。但7月18日入伏后，湖北大部地区以阵性降雨和晴热高温为主，农田失墒快，加上前期降雨时空、蓄水分布不均，鄂北、鄂东北、江汉平原北部旱情蔓延。

Wuhan (CNS)--As floods subside in Hubei, a severe drought has started to overtake part of the province.

As of 8:00 am today, outbound waters from the Three Gorges Dam calmed to a flow of 35,000 cubic meters per second. Other power stations in the middle section of the Yangtze River are also expected to see water levels drop gradually.

However, in contrast to other settlements alongside the Yangtze, the north part of the Jianghan Plain, which is located in eastern and central Hubei, and some northern and northeastern parts of the province are suffering a terrible drought.

By Wednesday, dry conditions had affected nearly 3.5 million mu (577,000 acres) of farmland, 78,000 large livestock and 397,000 local residents in cities that include Xiangyang, Suizhou, Jingmen, Xiaogan and Huanggan.

On July 31, the Hubei government responded by allocating 50 million yuan in total, with 30 million for flood control and 20 million for drought relief.