国内英语新闻:Haikui affects 6 mln people, destroys thousands of houses

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 6 million people had been affected by Typhoon Haikui in four provinces as of 8 a.m. Thursday, the country's flood control authority said.

Typhoon Haikui, which made landfall early Wednesday morning in east China's Zhejiang province, has destroyed 7,561 houses and 388,180 hectares of cropland in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, and Shanghai, according to a statement on the website of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

At 8 a.m., the water level on Taihu Lake, China's second-biggest freshwater lake, stood at 3.59 meters, 0.09 meter over the alert level, while many rivers in Zhejiang were also flowing above the danger mark, according to the statement.

The typhoon, which had been downgraded to a severe tropical storm as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, was located in the city of Chizhou in Anhui province at noon, the National Meteorological Center said.

Water levels in some rivers in Anhui will continue to rise as Haikui is forecast to hover over the southern parts of the province over the next two days.