Xiang, along with many in the village of his family in Yuanling County, lost his farmland and house in the floods this year. He will not be able to have his earliest harvest of rice until May next year.

Wednesday, Hong Kong Red Cross made a public appeal for donations to help ease the plight faced by numerous victims who, like Xiang and his fellow villagers, had their homes inundated by the floods.

A Hong Kong Red Cross spokesman said they have dispatched relief workers to different flood stricken areas - including Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou - to assess the extent of damage and relief materials warranted.

"In response, the Hong Kong Red Cross has mobilized HK$1.2 million worth of relief materials - mainly rice, wheat flour and clothes - to four badly-hit provinces, namely Hunan, Hubei, Henan and Guangxi," the spokesman said.

In the latest shipment, 211 cartons of about 8,000 clothes were airlifted to Guangxi by FedEx for free yesterday.

The spokesman said that in Yunnan, their workers were still assessing the local situation in Longchuan County in Dehong prefecture and would move to Qiandongnan prefecture in Guizhou afterwards. "Action plans will be confirmed after the assessment."

Citing figures provided by the Red Cross Society of China, the spokesman said flooding along Yangtze River and Huaihe River have affected about 100 million people in Hunan, Henan, Guangxi, Hubei, Anhui, Chongqing, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces.

So far, a total of 628 deaths have been reported and 7.4 million people evacuated from their homes. About 420,000 houses have been destroyed and over 14 million hectares of farmland, including that of Xiang, inundated, causing direct economic losses close to 30.8 billion yuan (US$3.71 billion), he said.

"As vast areas of crops were destroyed, farmers will face food shortages until the harvest next year. Since water sources were also contaminated, hygiene is also deteriorating," he said.

The spokesman called on the community to donate in support of the relief operation on the mainland, and said contributions could be made to the "Hong Kong Red Cross China Relief Fund". Bank accounts in HSBC (567-650155-016), Hang Seng Bank 267-175123-001), Bank of China (012-806-0-000161-7) and Bank of East Asia (514-40-39966-3). Donations could also be sent to Hong Kong Red Cross International and Relief Service Department by crossed cheques payable to "Hong Kong Red Cross China Relief Fund". Its address is 33, Harcourt Road, Wan Chai.

(China Daily HK Edition August 5, 2004)