SHANGHAI, Jul 19 -- FLOOD control authorities in China's eastern Anhui Province today ordered three city-level subordinates to evacuate up to 180,000 residents to prepare for imminent floodwater diversions.

The Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarter of Anhui required flood control authorities in the cities of Bengbu and Chuzhou, as well as Fengyang County to evacuate all residents in five flood diversion areas, Xinhua news agency reported today.

Floodwaters from the Huaihe River are emptied into these flood diversion areas to guarantee the safety of major cities and industrial centers along the middle and lower reaches of the river.

Villagers in Huayuanhu in Fengyang were required to leave the 1.6 million-square-meter flood diversion area by 2pm today, according to the report.

The area is home to a total of 76,972 residents and has fields of more than 2.25 million hectares, the report said.

River levels in Fengyang rose to 20.35 meters, 0.45 meters more than the high water level of 19.90 meters. All four reservoirs in the county are now at full capacity, the report said.

Jingshanhu Flood Diversion area in Bengbu City received the order to evacuate about 62,000 people by 11am today. Linbeiduan and Xiangfuduan areas in Chuzhou were also on the evacuation list.

Meanwhile, Xinhua also said that the Huaihe River Water Resources Commission, a government body under the Ministry of Water Resources, started using the Jiangtanghu Flood Diversion area in Bangbu City at 7:30am today to relieve rising flood pressure on Zhengyangguan, a dam in the middle reaches of the Huaihe.

The water level at Zhengyangguan was at 26.05 meters when Jiangtanghu started taking on floodwater. The warning level is 24 meters at Zhengyangguan while the high water level is 26.50 meters.

Torrential rainstorms began lashing the Huaihe River valley on June 28, destroying more than 71,000 homes and creating economic losses of 12 billion yuan (US$1.58 billion) by Monday, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters Office.

More rainstorms are expected to hit the Huaihe River region this week, which includes cities in the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong. About 165 million people live in the region.