CHANGSHA - Rain-triggered floods disrupted traffic and damaged roads in central China's Hunan Province on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of 4,700 residents from 82 townships in the province's west.

According to the provincial flood control headquarters, the storm has resulted in swollen rivers and inundated the ancient town of Liye in the Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi, home to a large number of excavated bamboo slips chronicling China's Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC).

Disaster relief efforts are under way.

The local meteorological station forecast that more rainstorms will hit the region on Thursday.