The Chinese government on Friday allocated 166 million yuan (20.75 million U.S. dollars) to help regions mop up and rebuild after recent natural disasters.

    The provinces and regions that will receive the money include Liaoning, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, which were hit by Kaemi and Prapiroon, the fifth and sixth typhoons of the year, and by floods.

    The funds were allocated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.

    Typhoon Prapiroon lashed China's southern coast last week, killing at least 80 people. Before that, at least 35 people had fallen to Typhoon Kaemi.

    But the storm season is not over. Super Typhoon Saomai, now sweeping east China's Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, has so far claimed at least 104 lives, left 190 missing and forced the evacuation of more than 1.7 million people by 4 p.m. Friday. Direct economic losses were estimated at more than 11 billion yuan (1.4 billion U.S. dollars).

    Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Dou Yupei arrived in Zhejiang toinspect relief work Friday afternoon.

    He went to Jinxiang Town in Cangcan County to visit villagers, and urged the local government to do the utmost to ensure people's safety and reduce losses to a minimum.