China’s north and west on alert after sweeping rains trigger deadly floods
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BEIJING - China’s north and west are braced for more flash floods and landslides on July 3 as annual “plum rains” left a trail of destruction and prompted the mobilisation of thousands of rescue workers to pull people from flood waters.
Red alerts were issued tracing the rain as it moved from the south-western province of Sichuan through the north-western province of Gansu, and up to the north-eastern province of Liaoning.
Some Beijing-bound trains were suspended, and one of the city’s airports experienced flight delays and cancellations late on July 2 and into the early hours.
Extreme rainfall and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for policymakers as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions and wreak havoc on China’s US$2.8 trillion (S$3.6 trillion) agricultural sector.
Economic losses from natural disasters exceeded US$10 billion in July 2024, when the “plum rains” – named for their timing coinciding with plums ripening along China’s Yangtze River during the East Asia monsoon – typically reach their peak.
State media said more than 1,000 rescue workers were dispatched to the town of Taiping in central China’s Henan province on July 2, after torrential rain caused a nearby river to burst its banks, killing five people in a flash flood and leaving three others missing.
Two more people died in a landslide at a construction site in Gansu province caused by heavy rain over July 2 and 3, a separate state media report said.
During a two-day visit to the northern province of Hebei, which borders Henan, Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing urged local officials to step up efforts ahead of anticipated heavy rain to minimise casualties by pre-emptively evacuating people, state news agency Xinhua reported on July 2.
While China has a nationwide severe weather monitoring and forecasting system, scientists say very localised predictions remain a challenge, testing the ability of particularly rural communities with fewer forecasting resources to evacuate local populations quickly ahead of any extreme weather.
Further south, in China’s Guangxi region, several buildings slid down hillsides over the last two days after their foundations gave way in waterlogged soil, local media reported.
Footage verified by Reuters shows a five-storey building under construction in the town of Xinzhou collapsing into a nearby river within seconds, as the ground beneath it suddenly gave way.
Between June 30 and July 1, the Lengshui River which flows through Xinzhou experienced its worst flooding in records going back to 2005, said a separate local media report, citing the Ministry of Water Resources. The report also instructed readers on how to recognise early signs of flash flooding.
Meanwhile, in Pingliu Village, some 80km west of Xinzhou, 21 people from seven households were evacuated on July 1 after a landslide led to the collapse of two houses and damaged four others, other local media reported.
In contrast, the national meteorological centre forecast scorching heat along the country’s eastern seaboard. REUTERS
