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© XinhuaFloodwater rushes through Wangmo county, Southwest China's Guizhou province, June 6, 2011.
After months without rain, many parts in southern China are now experiencing flooding. One week ago, provinces of Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hunan,Hubei, Jiangsu and Anhui were suffering severe drought.

But the situation took a sudden turn over the weekend, as several provinces including Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang were hit by heavy rains over the weekend. The once-parched land is now virtually underwater.

21 deaths have been reported in the worst-affected Wangmo county, Guizhou Province. 31 people still remain missing.

Officials in Wangmo County say the floods have forced about over 45 thousand residents to evacuate and caused economic losses of over 1.3 billion yuan.

The floods toppled 800 homes, and drowned 13,000 hectares of crops and vegetables in the county.

Flood waters inundated the area on Monday, disrupting power and water supplies and telecommunication services in several towns. The flooding also damaged roads, bridges, dikes, irrigation facilities and hydro-electric power stations.

The Guizhou provincial civil affairs bureau says rain-triggered floods have so far hit 14 cities and counties across the Province, affecting at least 400,000 people.

Heavy rain has pelted several other southern provinces during the past few days.

In Hunan Province, torrential rains have caused floods and landslides, damaging crops and forcing the shutdown of a major state road that won't be reopened until Thursday.

Forecasts predict a new round of rainfall will hit Hunan on Thursday and warned of landslides and mountain torrents.