Heavy rains lashed southern China over the weekend and into Tuesday, triggering landslides, collapsing roads and houses and causing rivers to overflow.
Landslides and flash floods have killed at least nine people in Fujian and neighboring Guangdong, China’s most populous province, and dozens more were still trapped or missing as of Tuesday.
Days of heavy rain have forced thousands of people to evacuate, flooding the area and leaving more than 100,000 households without power.
As of Monday, at least 17 rivers Exceeding the warning level Guangdong is China’s most populous province, with a population of about 127 million, according to local media reports.
Videos showed hundreds of collapsed buildings, bridges collapsing and falling into fast-flowing rivers, and debris drifting along city streets.
As officials and rescue workers struggle to control flooding in southern China, authorities face the opposite problem in the north, where heat and drought have been rife and rainfall has been scarce. The heat has prompted warnings of crop damage in farmlands across the country. China’s Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday it had allocated $61 million to help with replanting, watering and fertilizing areas affected by recent heat and lack of rain.
Officials in central China’s Henan province last week increased Water from local reservoirs To alleviate drought.
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, reported on the casualties on Tuesday afternoon and said flood prevention and disaster relief would become increasingly challenging as China enters its annual flood season, according to state media.
Officials warned that the severe weather would continue. On Tuesday, the national weather bureau issued a warning for heavy rain and landslides for southern provinces that have already been hit by torrential rains. The weather bureau also warned that temperatures in northern areas could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In April, nearly 20,000 people Evacuate from northern Guangdong Nine rivers were reported to be at risk of flooding.
last year, Abnormally heavy rainfall Just weeks later, the heaviest rains in a century hit northern China, forcing the evacuation of nearly a million people in neighboring Hebei and villages around Beijing, and angering residents whose homes and farms were flooded. Officials divert floodwaters To save the capital.
