Beijing ? More than 55,000 people were being evacuated in eastern China on Saturday as authorities rushed to cope with some of the worst flooding in more than a decade, and a mudslide caused by rains left more than 40 people missing.

China Central Television showed hundreds of volunteers — some waist-deep in water — feverishly piling sandbags to shore up embankments along Hongze Lake in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Residents around the lake were being moved as officials prepared to divert flood waters, said the head of the Xuyi County propaganda office.