Heavy rains spread to northern China, precautions being taken in Beijing The disaster emergency response level for Central China's Henan province was raised on Thursday as the local death toll from flooding rose to 99. The provincial government said heavy rainfall and flooding had affected more than 13.91 million people by noon Thursday, wiped out over 198,200 hectares of crops and led to the collapse of about 18,000 houses, causing direct economic losses of nearly 91 billion yuan ($14.08 billion). At 10 am Thursday, the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Emergency Management decided to raise the emergency disaster response from level three to level two to further support disaster relief and recovery.