Photos: China’s worst flood in decades

In a cruel version of "be careful what you wish for," eastern China's worst drought in decades has been eclipsed only by its most horrific floods since 1955.

Here are some numbers:

• At least 170 deaths
• Another 83 missing
• 1,000 businesses destroyed
• More than 1.6 million people evacuated from 13 southern and eastern provinces
• 8,400 houses destroyed in Zhejiang province alone
• 5 million people affected overall
• The direct economic loss is calculated at $4.9 billion

But as with most disasters of catastrophic proportions, the numbers don't communicate the extent of the damage.

That's where the pictures come in:

A flooded street in Lanxi, Zhejiang province in eastern China. Flood-hit areas of China braced for more heavy rains Monday. (AFP/Getty Images)

Students make their way across a flooded school compound in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province. (AFP/Getty Images)

A man rides a bicylce through the eastern province of Zhejiang. (AFP/Getty Images)

Vehicles are trapped in a flooded street after heavy rainfall. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Chinese farmers rescue their pigs in flood waters after heavy rains. (AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese workers try to clear their store of flood water along a street in Wuhan, Hubei. (AFP/Getty Images)

A view of a flooded street in Lanxi, Zhejiang. (AFP/Getty Images)

A woman grieves during a mass funeral for flood victims on June 11. (AFP/Getty Images)