New bouts of torrential rain in central China Tuesday forced the evacuation of more than 55,000 people.

Official news media said most of the evacuations were in the city of Xianning in Hubei province.

Heavy downpours in the past week have triggered floods and landslides in 13 provinces in central and southern China, affecting more than eight million residents. Officials said the inclement weather also destroyed close to 500,000 hectares of crops and that hundreds of homes were toppled.

China's ministry of civil affairs said Monday that the death toll from more than a week of floods and landslides had risen to 105, with more than 60 other people missing. Weather officials say in some regions, the rain will continue until Friday.

Some of the southern provinces that have been pounded with rain for the past 10 days were previously parched by drought.