In rural parts of southern China’s Guangdong province, nine people died and six are missing after historic flooding caused by downpours while on Friday authorities warned of more floods in other parts of the country ahead.
State broadcaster, CCTV reported that four people had died and four were missing in Meixian District in Guangdong’s Meizhou city on Thursday night. In addition to this, five individuals have perished at Jiaoling County which is located within Meizhou as well.
Toppling trees and collapsing homes, the heaviest rains from Sunday through Tuesday. During the heavy rains, a road leading to Meixian district completely collapsed. The Songyuan river winds through Meizhou had its largest ever recorded flood according to CCTV.
In Jiaoling county alone, it has been estimated that direct economic loss will amount to 3.65 billion yuan ($502 million) while for Meixian district; it’s been calculated as 1.06 billion yuan ($146 million).
More torrential rains and extreme weather are expected in other parts of the country over the next 24 hours with warnings issued by the National Meteorological Center (NMC) for several provinces in the south and some places up north.
According to forecasters hailstorms and strong thunderstorms imminent across Henan and Anhui provinces in central China; Jiangsu province on coast as well as Guizhou province in South. Rainfall is expected to reach between 50 mm-80 mm (1.9”-3.14”) per day within Henan, Anhui or Hubei Provinces NMC added.
Landslides occurred last week as well as flooding due to heavy rainfall across southern Fujian and Guangxi regions. A student fell into a swollen river and died while drowning during heavy rainfall experienced in Guangxi Province recently.
