Heavy rainfall has ravaged southern China, causing more than 100 rivers to overflow and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.
Nearly 500,000 people have been affected, and more than 1,700 houses were swept from their foundations, according to a notice released by the emergency management department of Guangdong Province.
Authorities in Guangdong, China’s manufacturing hub, closed schools, factories, and public transport in hard-hit areas.
As of June 21, 113 rivers in southern China had topped their warning levels, according to state media.
The city of Yingde was the hardest hit, with severe waterlogging reported within its urban areas. Rural townships also were surrounded by floodwaters, with some villages almost wholly submerged, forming temporary islands. Power outages were widespread in the area, which caught the attention of Chinese social media.
The highest level of flooding in the city reached 118 feet (36.1 meters) on June 22, more than 32 feet (10 meters) above warning stage, according to local officials.
In Guangdong’s Shaoguan city, flood waters rose to a 50-year high, destroying homes and affecting more than 60,000 residents.
Meanwhile, in Jiangxi Province, heavy rainfall prompted three red alerts and one blue alert within a single day. At 3 p.m. local time on June 21, 17 observation sites along Poyang Lake and nine rivers recorded flood waters that exceeded warning levels.
A resident from Hanguang township in Guangdong’s Yingde city told The Epoch Times that his home was destroyed by flooding.
“The water level has remained at two meters [6.6 feet] without receding,” Tao Fan (a pseudonym) said on June 22. “Our ground floor has been flooded.”
According to Fan, multiple factors contributed to the local floods, including the heavy rainfall that lasted several days and the discharge of surrounding reservoirs.
“The discharge from the Shaoguan reservoir has flooded the whole city of Yingde, including its [outlying] townships,” he said. “And bridges are at risk.”
He said that while residents had received a warning notice before the discharge from the reservoir, it was too late for many to evacuate. They face other serious challenges such as power outages and no cellphone signal.
There were no reports of injuries or deaths caused by the flooding, according to Fan.
As of press time, Chinese state media outlets reported that flood waters had “somewhat receded.”
Officials in Yingde, Dawan, and Wangbu couldn’t be reached for comment.
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