Rainy weather in southern China leaves at least 9 dead

Floods, mudflows and landslides triggered by days of torrential rain in southern China have left at least nine dead, dozens injured and hundreds of thousands homeless.

In Central China's Hubei Province torrential rain left three people dead, 35 seriously injured and over 350,000 homeless, a local official said over the weekend.

Liu Changdou, a disaster-relief official from the provincial civil affairs department, said 945 houses had collapsed and 137,500 hectares of farmland had been flooded.

According to the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters the heavy rain swept over 11 cities and counties from May 24 to 25.

The rain in Jingzhou, which was among the worst hit places, reached 260.7 millimetres, one of the heaviest rainfalls the city has ever experienced.

Torrential rain has also swept through most of Guangdong Province in the past few days.

Between May 26 and 28 local meteorological observatories issued 105 rainstorm warnings, with five cities and counties issuing warning signals of the highest grade.

Most places recorded more than 100 millimetres of rain, with 409.4 millimetres of daily rainfall reported at Shangchuan Island.

Continuous heavy rain caused streets to flood in the cities of Jiangmen, Foshan, Heyuan and Huizhou, but despite damage from water logging no casualties or injuries have been reported.

Heavy downpours inconvenienced workers in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, yesterday morning and rain continued for the rest of the day.

The weather started to ease yesterday but is expected to gain force again on Thursday.

Zhang Dejiang, Party chief for Guangdong Province, urged various areas to take anti-flooding measures to guard against further damage.

Meanwhile the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters warned that attention should be paid to mid and small scale reservoirs in southern China that have exceeded flood alarm lines.

The one positive outcome of the devastating weather is that the continuous rainfall has eased the drought affecting 2 million hectares of farmland in southern and central areas of North China, central Inner Mongolia and southwestern China, added the office's spokesman.

Source: China Daily