Heavy floods have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in southern China, and more rains are expected.
The Guangdong manufacturing center suspended classes, office work and public transportation amid rising water and the threat of landslides. In neighboring Jiangxi Province, nearly 500,000 people have seen their homes damaged and their lives taken.
Approximately the same number has been affected in Guangdong, mainly in Shaoguan, Heyuan and Meizhou cities.
A car soaked on the water-filled road in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images Agency
Heavy rains have collapsed roads in some parts of cities and devastated homes, cars and crops, and more rain is expected in the coming days.
Chinese authorities issued the first red alert of the year on Sunday, the most serious warning for possible mountain torrents. In Zhejiang Province, a little further north, rescue teams on inflatable boats pulled residents trapped in their homes in the flooded villages.
Rescuers are handing out food supplies to villagers trapped in an area affected by the floods in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province. Photo: VCG / Getty Images
China regularly experiences flooding during the summer months, most often in the central and southern areas that usually receive more rain.
This year’s floods are the worst in decades in some areas and add to Covid-19’s strict regulations that have strangled travel, employment and normal life in much of the country.
China’s worst floods in recent years were in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and nearly 3 million homes were destroyed, mostly along the Yangtze River, China’s largest river.
The government has invested heavily in flood control and hydroelectric projects such as the huge Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze.
Globally, the heaviest tropical storms are increasing as a result of climate change, causing an increase in life-threatening floods, crops and groundwater.
One person passes through the flooded water in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images Agency