Flooding Continues to Plague Eastern China

Floods continue to inundate eastern China on Tuesday, in what Chinese state media says are the worst floods in 56 years.

A major dam in eastern Zhejiang Province began to discharge water into a nearby river on Tuesday morning, after it swelled due to heavy rainfall over the past two weeks.

The state-run Xinhua news agency says that by Monday night, the water level of the Xin'anjiang reservoir in Zhejiang Province rose to 351 feet, more than two feet above the warning level.

Xinhua also says that the floods have affected more than four million people. It reports that 8,400 houses have collapsed, a total of 930 square miles of farmland destroyed and over 1,800 factories closed in Zhejiang. The province also happens to be one of China's leading manufacturing powerhouses, resulting in economic losses over one billion US dollars.

The latest death toll stands at 175 dead and 86 missing.