Vehicles are stranded in water on a flooded road in Changsha, Central China's Hunan province, July 1, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has ordered the Three Gorges Reservoir on the Yangtze to reduce the flow of discharge to 18,000 cubic meters per second to relieve the flood pressure downstream, and launched a Grade III emergency response plan, the second-lowest of the four-tier national response system.

In Jiangxi province, which neighbors Hunan, flooding was blamed for seven deaths. Two people remain missing. About 440,000 people had been evacuated as of Saturday.

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Xinhua contributed to this story.