Hundreds of thousands evacuated in China after heaviest rain in decades

BEIJING • The heaviest rainfall in decades has triggered floods and landslides in southern China, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people, state media reported.

The downpours have dangerously swelled waterways in the low-lying Pearl River basin. With much of China's manufacturing concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, shipping, logistics and factory operations are threatened, adding pressure to supply chains that are already stressed owing to China's Covid-19 controls.

The average rainfall in Guangdong, Fujian and Guangxi provinces between early last month and the middle of this month reached 621mm, the highest since 1961, according to China's National Meteorological Centre.

State media photos showed people huddled on camp beds in schools converted into temporary shelters in Guangdong's Shaoguan city, and hundreds of tents erected on a sports ground.

In neighbouring Guangxi region, muddy water was seen flooding urban areas and emergency rescuers were seen evacuating villagers on rubber dinghies, according to state media images.

The Guangdong authorities on Monday said more than 200,000 people have been evacuated over the course of the disaster, and that the damage so far is estimated at 1.7 billion yuan (S$351 million).

Shaoguan issued a red flood alert yesterday morning, after multiple rural counties and the major city of Foshan upgraded their flood warnings in recent days.

A red alert was also issued in Jiangxi province on Monday, after 485,000 people in nine districts were affected by the floods.

China has a four-tier, colour-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Guangxi was hit by the heaviest floods since 2005, the local media reported. The meteorological authorities said on Monday that 28 of Guangxi's rivers had exceeded warning levels, with rain continuing yesterday.

And in Fujian, more than 220,000 people have been evacuated since the beginning of this month because of floods, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

While the country's south is battered by heavy rainfall and floods, the north is feeling the heat of abnormally high temperatures, showing the dual impacts of climate change in the world's second-biggest economy.

The authorities yesterday renewed an orange alert for high temperatures, as heatwaves continued to sweep the north.

During the daytime yesterday, parts of Beijing and Tianjin cities, the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hainan, as well as the Xinjiang region, experienced high temperatures that were forecast to reach 35 deg C to 39 deg C.

Some areas in Hebei and Shandong were expected to see the mercury go beyond 40 deg C, the National Meteorological Centre said.

It advised people to avoid outdoor activities during high-temperature periods in the afternoon and suggested that workers exposed to high temperatures take protective measures.

Meanwhile, the heavy rainfall in the south is expected to become less intense from today, with the main rain belt moving north and downpours expected to hit parts of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, as well as Jilin and Liaoning provinces in north China.

But experts have warned about the negative impact of floods in small and medium-sized rivers, urban and rural waterlogging, and landslides in mountain areas, urging the public to stay away from disaster-prone regions.

Earlier this month, at least 21 people died after flooding induced by torrential rain in Hubei.

Catastrophic flooding in Henan last year killed 398 people and caused economic losses of more than US$10 billion (S$13.8 billion).

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA