Tens of thousands evacuated as torrential rains drench south China
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as heavy rains batter southern China, flooding homes and triggering landslides, state media said on Wednesday.
Torrential downpours have drenched southern Guangdong province, with a landslide in its capital, Guangzhou, trapping 14 people, state broadcaster CCTV said. One person was later confirmed dead, it said.
More than 75,000 people in Guangdong had been evacuated by noon on Wednesday, CCTV said during its evening news broadcast.
CCTV footage showed people wading in waist-deep water and a group clinging to a submerged car.
Heavy rains also flooded residential neighbourhoods and shops in nearby Guangxi province, CCTV said.
Authorities activated an emergency response in Guangdong on Wednesday due to severe flooding, according to China’s emergency management ministry.
The government is also allocating 100 million yuan ($14 million) toward the recovery in Guangdong, Beijing’s top economic planner said.
Continuous rainfall and flooding in multiple areas across the province had caused “heavy casualties and property losses”, the National Reform and Development Commission said in a statement Wednesday.
Of the 14 people trapped by a landslide that hit Guangzhou’s Dayuan village at around 8:30 am, seven had been rescued and were “not in immediate danger”, CCTV said.
The body of an eighth person was recovered later on Wednesday evening, CCTV said. Rescue efforts were continuing, it said.
Footage on CCTV showed orange-suited rescuers standing on a large pile of debris, which appeared to be a collapsed building.
Heavy rains in northern Beijing killed 44 people last month, with the capital’s rural suburbs hit the hardest.
A landslide in a village in Hebei province, which encircles Beijing, killed another eight people.
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
But it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060.
