Landslides leave 6 injured as southern China braces for 'once-in-a-century' floods April 21, 2024

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Landslides leave 6 injured as southern China braces for 'once-in-a-century' floods

Landslides in southern China have injured at least six people and left others trapped, state media reported on Sunday, as the region braced for severe floods "seen only once a century".

Torrential rains that have fallen in several areas of Guangdong province since Thursday have flooded rivers in the Pearl River delta and caused deluges in mountainous areas.

State broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday that the rains caused landslides that affected six villages in Jiangwan in northern Guangdong, "causing people to become trapped".

Photographs published by CCTV showed seaside houses destroyed by a wall of brown mud and people wearing fluorescent-colored ponchos sheltering in a waterlogged public sports court.

No deaths were immediately reported and the total number of people trapped was not specified.

But CCTV said that six people who were "trapped and injured" in the landslides were airlifted to the nearby city of Shaoguan.

Emergency teams were rushing to restore communications in the affected area "as soon as possible", CCTV said.

The broadcaster added that more than 80 rescue workers were working "day and night" to help people in the disaster zone.

The Pearl River Delta is China's manufacturing heartland and one of the country's most densely populated regions, with Guangdong alone home to around 127 million people.

Aerial footage taken by CCTV on Sunday showed the murky flood waters coming close to street level in some cities, leaving riverside sidewalks and pavilions flooded and a pagoda protruding from the torrent.

Authorities launched a level two emergency response in the Pearl River Delta, the second highest level in a four-level system.

The National Meteorological Office imposed weather alerts across central Guangdong and warned of major storms in coastal areas overnight Sunday and into Monday.

Citing the province's hydrology department, CCTV said three monitored sites in the Bei River basin would "suffer once-in-a-century flooding... due to the impact of heavy rainfall".

Floodwaters of up to 5.8 meters (19 feet) above the warning limit would hit the areas from Monday morning, according to CCTV.

Several other monitored tributaries in the basin would suffer the kind of flooding that occurs once every 50 years, according to CCTV.

There were no initial reports of mass evacuations.

Parts of the neighboring provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian were also forecast to face strong storms on Sunday night.

China is no stranger to extreme weather conditions, but in recent years the country has been plagued by severe floods, intense droughts, and record heat.

Climate change driven by man-made greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense, and China is the world's largest emitter.

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