国内英语新闻:Flood-hit families to get subsidies from government to rebuild homes

"It will be very difficult for me to rebuild my home. I still owe 20,000 yuan to the bank," Fu said.

His family had a yearly income of about 30,000 yuan before the flood destroyed everything, and to build a house of 50 square meters usually costs 70,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan.

Most of his fellow villagers face the same dilemma as Fu.

The Jilin provincial government issued a notice Friday, saying that each flood-hit family in the rural and urban areas are eligible to receive 20,000 yuan in subsidies if they need to rebuild their destroyed homes, and 1,000 to 3,000 yuan if they need to repair their damaged homes.

The provincial government also promised to give 450 yuan to every homeless person as a "living allowance."

In addition, each rural family that lost homes can receive 200 to 300 yuan per month as a "housing allowance" before next June, and for each urban family they can receive 400 to 500 yuan per month.

In Dunhua, the government said it would offer 30,000 to 40,000 yuan to each flood-hit family if they rebuild their homes completely by themselves. In addition, the government can help them build two types of houses -- 45 square meters or 60 square meters.

"According to the regulation, I still need to prepare 15,000 yuan myself if I want to build a 45-square-meter house, and 30,000 yuan for a 60-square-meter house. That is actually still difficult for me," Fu said.

"But we cannot just rely on the government. We ourselves also need to find other ways," he added.

Flood-triggered disasters have killed more than 1,450 people across the country this year, with another 669 missing, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Lingering rainstorms have continued slashing provinces including Shaanxi, Sichuan and Jilin this year, triggering floods and landslides which have affected a population of 200 million and forced more than 12 million to evacuate, according to the ministry.