At least four people have died and tens of thousands have been evacuated as China braces for deadly “once in a century” floods.
Violent storms have hit southern China since Thursday, state media said on Monday, with 11 people missing amid the torrential downpours.
In recent days, heavy rains have fallen on the vast southern province of Guangdong, causing rivers to rise up to seven meters and raising fears of serious flooding that, according to local media, could be of the “once in a century” type. “.
“Three deaths were reported in Zhaoqing city, while the remaining one is a rescuer in Shaoguan city,” state news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities.
Another ten people remain missing as search and rescue efforts continue in the area, Xinhua added.
Guangdong Province, China, has been hit by torrential downpours that have caused devastating and deadly flooding.
A vehicle was seen being swept away in thick, muddy floodwaters as helpless onlookers watched in horror.
Rivers have risen up to seven meters, submerging houses, shops and pastures in deep water.
More than 110,000 people have been relocated in Guangdong as rains destroyed their homes.
At least four people have died, 11 are still missing and tens of thousands have been evacuated from their homes due to bad weather.
China is no stranger to extreme weather conditions, but in recent years the country has been hit by severe flooding, devastating droughts and record heat.
Across the province, 36 houses collapsed and 48 were severely damaged, causing a direct economic loss of nearly 140.6 million yuan, Xinhua reported.
According to the news site, more than 110,000 people have been relocated to Guangdong.
Of them, more than 45,000 were evacuated from the northern city of Qingyuan, which straddles the banks of the Bei River, a tributary in the Pearl River Delta, state media reported Sunday.
Officials said the river was expected to reach levels not seen in 50 years.
Terrifying images shared on state media and online show large swathes of land submerged in murky waters as rescuers are seen carrying people in lifeboats in waist-deep floodwaters.
Other images show murky waters engulfing Guangdong’s shops, homes and areas of farmland, while bird’s-eye photos of the province show a concrete jungle drowning in flood waters.
On Monday, authorities rushed to rescue villagers caught in landslides and evacuate trapped residents, sending helicopters and carrying elderly people on their backs from their homes during the deluge.
Across the province, 36 houses collapsed and 48 were severely damaged, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Residents were seen carrying suitcases and removing children from small rubber boats as they tried to find safety in the deep waters.
A bird’s eye view of part of the province shows grasslands submerged in brown water.
Residents were seen carrying suitcases and children from rubber boats as they made a desperate attempt to reach safety as the strange weather unleashed its hell on the province.
In another image of what happened, a vehicle is seen crushed by a fallen tree as the destruction spread throughout the province.
Footage captured on Saturday showed a bridge crumbling and collapsing into a river as strong winds battered the area.
Several major rivers have burst their banks and authorities say they are now closely monitoring “dangerously high” water levels.
Across the province, about 1.16 million homes were without power over the weekend, but power was restored to 80 per cent on Sunday.
Flights were canceled and delayed at Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou due to continued rain, while schools were ordered to close in at least three cities.
Heavy rain is expected to continue throughout Monday, with weather authorities predicting “thunderstorms and strong winds in the coastal waters of Guangdong,” a stretch of sea bordering major cities including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Authorities warned that the level of a river in northern Guangdong could peak “once in 100 years” on Monday morning, although this had not yet materialized by midday.
Neighboring provinces, including parts of Fujian, Guizhou and Guangxi, will also be hit by “short-duration heavy rain,” the National Meteorological Center said.
Rescue workers evacuate villagers trapped by floodwaters with a boat after heavy rain, April 21, 2024.
Aerial view of rescuers evacuating trapped villagers after torrential rains on April 21, 2024. Torrential rains have reportedly been falling since Thursday.
Resident Huang Jingrong cleans his car with a boat tied to the back after the weather disaster.
A vehicle damaged by fallen tree trunks is seen after heavy rainstorms in Qingyuan city, south China’s Guangdong province, Monday, April 22, 2024.
“The main impact period of strong convection is expected to last from day to night,” he added.
On Monday, authorities issued a yellow alert for rainstorms, the second lowest in their four-tier system, and high levels of precipitation are expected to continue over large swaths of the country.
Guangdong province is the densely populated manufacturing heart of China, home to around 127 million people.
The province, once dubbed the “factory of the world,” is prone to flooding in summer, but since Thursday, Guangdong has been hit by unusually heavy rain.
Worryingly, the violent and heavy downpours have arrived well before the flood season, which is usually in May and June.
“My rice fields are completely flooded, my fields are gone,” Huang Jingrong, 61, told Reuters.
Huang was taking shelter under an overpass with some other farmers from his village, along with a variety of personal belongings they managed to save, including a washing machine.
“I won’t make any money this year, I will make losses,” he told Reuters, estimating his losses at around 100,000 yuan (£11,213).
‘What can we do? “They will not reimburse us for our losses.”
In the city of Jiangwan, six people were injured and several trapped in landslides triggered by heavy rain on Sunday, state media reported.
Photographs released by state broadcaster CCTV showed beachfront homes destroyed by a wall of brown mud and people sheltering on a sodden public sports field.
CCTV reported Sunday that flooding of up to 19 feet above the warning limit would occur in tributaries of the Pearl River on Monday morning.
Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense, and China is the world’s largest emitter.
Scientists say abnormal weather events have become more intense and unpredictable in China, hitting the world’s second-largest economy with heavy rains, droughts and severe heat that have inflicted enormous personal and economic toll on some parts of the country.
China’s brutal weather wave comes just under a week after Dubai experienced the heaviest rain the UAE has ever recorded, as the “historic weather event” wreaked havoc across the city.
The United Arab Emirates was engulfed in apocalyptic scenes when more than 4.7 inches of rain fell in one day, which is the typical annual average.
Some vehicles, including buses, were almost completely submerged by the deluge, while the roofs of shopping malls and public buildings collapsed, triggering torrents of rainwater.
Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest airfield for international travel, was inundated by the deluge, leaving tourists stranded in the desert.