CHANGSHA -- Heavy rainfall battered parts of Central China's Hunan province starting Wednesday evening, causing waterlogging and prompting the evacuation of local residents.

Torrential downpours hit Zhangjiajie and Changde cities in Hunan, and extremely heavy rainfall was reported in parts of Cili county of Zhangjiajie and Taoyuan county of Changde, which led to waterlogging.

In Shejiaping town, Taoyuan county, sustained heavy rainfall led to waterlogging by early morning on Thursday. Local authorities organized the evacuation of residents in at-risk zones.

Hunan's provincial meteorological observatory upgraded the rainstorm alert to the orange level on Thursday morning. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.