Severe flooding caused by Typhoon Utor in China’s Guangdong Province has trapped large numbers of people in their homes without any sign of rescue.
Torrential rain lasted for days in the area, collapsing dikes, causing landslides, and inundating whole villages. Yangcheng Evening News’ official microblog called it the worst flood in a century.
Residents say that the authorities are not rescuing them and the media isn’t reporting on the situation. Many people have been trapped since Aug. 17, and some people are using the Internet to call for help or upload photos of the flood.
“It rained here for four consecutive days and nights,” said Mr. Huang, a resident of Lianzhou city in Guangdong. “The river rose more than 30 feet. Many houses are two to three stories high, but they are all submerged in flood. There is nobody left in the entire village; seven to eight villages are completely submerged.”
Up to 21.7 inches of rain fell in Chaoshan region in Guangdong, the largest recorded rainfall since 1959. The flood has affected 500,000 people according to the current estimate.
More than 200 people have been reported dead or missing from the typhoon, according to the Huffington Post.
“The elderly in the village said that this is the heaviest rain they had seen,” said Mr. Luo, a Huizhou City resident.
“When the officials showed up, it was already too late. If the reservoir had collapsed, we would have all died. We are now here with no electricity, water supply, food or drinking water,” Mr. Luo said.
The provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang in northeastern China have also faced severe flooding this month.
Heavy rain lasted more than two weeks there, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported 105 deaths from those floods as of Aug. 19. A netizen said there were over 1,000 deaths in Qingyuan County in Liaoning alone.
Friends Read Free