Workers race to fight China floods

AS green floodwaters rose into homes beside a huge, rain-swollen lake in central China, yesterday, 800,000 workers were racing to shore up dykes that protect six Chinese cities and dozens of villages.

Authorities said they had evacuated about 1,000 families around Dongting Lake in Hunan province and would be moving more.

In the town of Chenglingji on the lake's east shore, buildings outside the town's flood barrier stood in five feet of water and residents with boats were ferrying neighbours to dry land. Some with two-storey homes moved all their belongings upstairs.