As a severe heat wave batters northern and central China, seven southern provinces are facing rains that have caused the country’s worst flooding in decades. Thousands of people are homeless.
In Guangdong province alone, China’s most populous, the rains impacted nearly 480,000 people and caused 1,729 homes to collapse, according to the region’s emergency management department. The damage extends to agriculture, with reports of damage to 27.1 hectares of crops. The result is an estimated economic loss of at least US$261 million, according to state news agency Xinhua.
This Wednesday (22), 113 rivers in the country exceeded the warning levels for flooding, according to the Ministry of Water Resources. In the city of Yingde in Guangdong, residents posted on social media that water and power had been cut off as the area flooded.
Yingde officials relocated residents to the south of the city and advised others not to leave their homes. Stores have run out of staples, including oil and rice, prompting consumers to scramble to stock up.
Villagers were stranded in Jiangxi province and had to be rescued after floods destroyed roads and bridges. In Fujian, authorities also issued warnings for record rainfall and high risk of natural disasters.
As if the heavy rains weren’t enough, last week the megacity of Guangzhou was hit by a tornado that damaged properties, flooded farmland and forced the displacement of thousands of people.
In April, before the rainy season that signals the transition from spring to summer, Chinese authorities had issued warnings of “extreme weather events”. China is historically prone to floods that trigger landslides and inundate acres of agricultural land. In recent times, however, the country has become even more vulnerable due to deforestation, the recovery of wetlands and the storage of water for power generation and irrigation.
China also points to climate change for the increase in extreme events.
Since May, rainfall in the Pearl River basin — a vast river system that spans Guangdong and parts of Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan — has been the heaviest on record since 1961, according to China’s National Climate Center. .
Meanwhile, temperatures in the center and north of the country reached unusual highs, exceeding 40ºC.
