CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A tropical storm has prompted officials to declare a flood emergency in southern China's Hunan province. The swollen rivers and lakes are now threatening to engulf some 10 million people. CNN's Jaime FlorCruz joins us now via telephone from Beijing with an update. Jaime -- what's going on there?</s>COSTELLO: You know, it's just mind-boggling to think that 10 million people may be affected by this.</s>FLORCRUZ: Indeed. Well, China being so big, a country of 1.2 billion, and so vast, you know, it has been raining in the north a couple of weeks ago, and now, it's the south's turn. And flooding in China is quite a common occurrence all these years. In fact, most of the rivers here are also known as "rivers of death" or "sorrow of China." And so, it's quite common that this flooding occurs, especially during the monsoon season, which is under way.</s>COSTELLO: So if you evacuate that many people, where do they go?</s>FLORCRUZ: Well, they try to go to higher places or other provinces. The good thing here is there is a top-down kind of organization, so that it's easier for them to mobilize tens of thousands of people. A lot of it is reliant on, for example, the PLA, the Chinese army, which is very organized, and it's easy to mobilize. Local officials have also been bracing up for this disaster the past several weeks, because there have been forecasts of more rain and flooding.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Jaime FlorCruz, thanks for updating us on the terrible flooding in China.
Chinese Officials Declare Flood Emergency