BEIJING – Torrential rains over the weekend have lashed southern China with at least six fatalities and dozens still missing, causing rescue alerts for major flooding, mudslides, and geological hazards to be widely issued by authorities.
Guangdong and Guangxi provinces have been among those most severely affected with near-paralytic disruptions to daily life and basic infrastructure.
The National Meteorological Centre of China had released a series of late warnings, noting heavy rain for the regions in South China such as Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangxi, and some northwestern areas, Xinjiang, from May 18 — May 19.
A yellow alert, meaning that there is a high degree probability of flash flood in the mountains was even issued for areas such as Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong (southeast coastal province) and Guangxi or in short: China has a four-level weather-warnings system running from highest, red; up to blue; described as low probability.
Doing big weather kind of ruined things. State media said there were huge power outages in Guangdong and Guangxi as more than half of the households lost electricity just recently, with some share of those homes being restored by power suppliers. And transportation has been crippled too with at least 10 lines connecting the souths biggest city shenzhen and other towns shut on Junos Monday by continuous rain.
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Heavy downpours also brought landslides in some areas. For example, in Gaozhou city, a village inside Pingtougang city, a landslide destroyed a 3-story building and resulted in deaths. Rescue work in those affected areas is in full swing, search for missing persons and help the displaced is going on. The authorities have cautioned people living in the high-risk areas to remain vigilant and take precautionary measures as more rainfall is forecasted for the next few days, which adds to the fears of more geological disasters and urban waterlogging. This latest bout of extreme weather comes as China continues to grapple with increasingly frequent and intense weather events, linked by scientists to global climate change.
