A PRE-DAWN thunderstorm packing high winds and torrential rains hit the area around central China’s Dongting Lake early yesterday, raising the threat to already strained dikes protecting several cities and dozens of villages.

　Forecasters had predicted that the northern part of Hunan and the western provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan could be deluged by up to 5 centimeters of rain by today. The storm came after days of clear skies and hot weather.

　Already, the lake was about 1.8 meters above the danger mark at which officials feel there is a threat to the dikes bordering the 3,995-square-km Dongting Lake.

　Flood control workers in Wuhan, Hebei Province, yesterday scrambled to contain the surging Yangtze River.

　In Changsha, Hunan’s capital, officials emerging from a flood emergency meeting said waters will remain high through early September, Xinhua News Agency said.

　“The flood fighting situation is serious,” it said.

　Teams of six people have been posted every 50 meters to watch the dikes around-the-clock along the Xiangjiang river, which runs through Changsha and into Dongting Lake. <2002><2001>(SD-Agencies)