Beijing: At least 15 people have been killed and thousands more forced from their homes by flooding in southern and central China and more rain has been forecast for coming days, officials said on Thursday.
Authorities said that Jiangxi province has been hardest hit, with eight people killed and 65,000 displaced. Just to the south, the Guangxi region suffered five deaths with six other people listed as missing.
Two other deaths were recorded in Hunan province, one of China’s main rice producers, where 2,000 other people were moved to shelters. Fujian evacuated 17,000 people from danger areas, but no one was reported dead or missing in the coastal province.
Heavy rain forced the delay or cancellation of hundreds of passenger flights as flood waters in some areas rose to more than two metres.
Other provinces affected by the heavy rainfall over the last few days are Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. Taiwan has also seen heavy rainfall. In Taizhong, 114mm of rain fell in 24 hours between May 19 and 20.
Heavy rain and hail have lashed Fuzhou, the capital of China’s Fujian Province, too causing flooding and driving the temperature down by ten degrees Celsius.
Rainfall in parts of the south-eastern city brought traffic to a standstill — with five centimetres reported in the first hour of a four-hour storm.
China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, then orange, yellow and blue. Local meteorological authorities issued a blue alert for heavy rain, while the localised hail storms were rated orange.
China’s Meteorological Administration (CMA) have issued a yellow level warning for heavy rain.
The National Climate Centre (NCC) said it is likely to continue through to the autumn, worsening the flood situation in some southern areas.
Known as ‘El Nino’, the weather pattern can bring floods to some regions, while causing drought in others. The NCC’s Zhou Bing advises parts of northern China should expect drought as a result.
More than 580 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled in Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province on Wednesday, local newspaper New Express reported.
Torrential rain and lightning temporarily halted all operations at Guiyang Airport in Guizhou province on Monday, China.com.cn said.
Floods cut power to tens of thousands of homes in parts of Guangdong, and 2,200 houses were severely damaged in neighbouring Fujian. More than 220,000 residents were affected, including 37,000 who were evacuated, the Fujian Provincial Civil Affairs Bureau said.
Schools were closed in 12 cities and counties in Guangdong when the rainstorm alert was raised to red — the highest in the four-tier system — on Wednesday afternoon.
