China overflows as the rain sets in

Days of heavy and steady rains cause flooding and widespread disruption across the south of the country.

China floods
Tens of thousands of people have been affected so far, and more rain is expected over the weekend. [Getty Images]

Torrential rains across central and southern China have claimed at least six lives during the last few days. Tens of thousands of people have been affected so far, and more rain is expected over the weekend.

The heaviest rain was across Guangdong province. Here the provincial capital of Guangzhou saw 56mm of rain in 24 hours. Meanwhile, Xinyi had 118mm in the same period of time. Worst affected was Yangjiang which recorded 250mm of rain on Thursday alone.

The violent storms and persistent rains have ruined vast areas of croplands and caused widespread flooding which have rendered many roads impassable. Such floods are not unusual here as summer approaches, and we often see flooding across China’s rural, wet and mountainous southern regions.

Further north, Ewenki, in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region has also seen flooding. One person remains missing and around 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The flooding was caused by rapidly melting snow that led to rising water levels which caused the local reservoir to overflow. This released water into the Yimin River, subsequently flooding nearby towns and villages.

A residential area in the town of Yimin has been badly hit and some houses here have collapsed. The local government have sent in more than 1,500 relief workers and rescuers along with 560 vehicles to help to ease the situation

Source: Al Jazeera