Eleven people died and 27 others are missing after rainstorms that have devastated parts of Chongqing municipality in southwest China since Sunday, the official news agency Xinhua reports. The missing includes 11 miners trapped after a landslide that hit Yunyang on Monday morning. Many of them are believed buried under tons of debris.

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Up to 40,000 people have been evacuated by Tuesday afternoon, many of them from the northeast part of the municipality. China relief organizations report that more than one million people in nine districts or counties in the municipality are suffering from the effects of the storms.

Municipality authorities said the rain and resulting flod and landslides have caused the destruction of 2,251 houses and damaged 25,000 others. Economic losses total more than one billion yuan (US$167 million).

Rescue workers are anxious about the condition of two barrier lakes in that have been formed after landslides in Fengjie County. At the barrier lake near Wushan village, water volume has reached 800,000 cubic meters with a depth of 30 meters.

Flood control authorities say the water level is rising at a speed of one meter per hour. More than 1,100 residents threatened by the lake have been evacuated.

The other barrier lake threatens 400 residents.

Reuters reported that People's Liberation Army soldiers have evacuated 580 students and teachers from a middle school in Gulu township of Wuxi County, which was besieged by floodwater as night fell on Tuesday. As of the time of the report, soldiers were rescuing up to 1,000 more people from the school.

Torrential rains started pouring on Yunyang, Wuxi, Fengjie and Wushan Sunday, and by Monday morning, traffic to many areas have been cut, and power and coomunication lines were down. Soldiers and engineers were trying to open three major roads and a highway to the county seat of Wuxi that have been cut by landslides. 

The Chongqing government has earmarked 70 million yuan (US$11.3 million) for disaster relief. Close to 1.09 million people have been affected in the region.