14 hours ago
Over 80,000 people evacuated due to floods in southwest China
Severe flooding in China's southwestern province of Guizhou has forced more than 80,000 people to flee their homes, Beijing's state media said on Wednesday. China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with heat waves scorching wide swaths of the country while rainstorms pummel other regions. Nearly 70,000 people in southern China were relocated days earlier after heavy flooding caused by Typhoon Wutip.(AFP)
Rescue teams have been sent to two Guizhou counties, where the flood control emergency response has been raised to its highest level, state news agency Xinhua reported. A football field in Rongjiang county was "submerged under three meters of water", the news agency said.
Resident Long Tian told Xinhua: "The water rose very quickly". "I stayed on the third floor waiting for rescue. By the afternoon, I had been transferred to safety," Long said. Around 80,900 people had been evacuated their homes by Tuesday afternoon, Xinhua said. Footage published by state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday showed a collapsed bridge near Kaili city in Guizhou province.
Rescuers pushed boats carrying residents through murky, knee-high water and children waited in a kindergarten as emergency personnel approached them. A rescue team was shown in the CCTV video preparing a drone to deliver supplies including rice to flood victims.
Also read: Scientists discover new 'brain-inflaming' bat viruses in China, raise 'urgent concerns' Extreme weather
Floods have also hit neighbouring Guangxi province, with state media publishing videos of rescuers there carrying residents to safety. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last week in the central Chinese province of Hunan due to heavy rain.
Nearly 70,000 people in southern China were relocated days earlier after heavy flooding caused by Typhoon Wutip. Chinese authorities issued the year's first red alerts last week for mountain torrents in six regions the most severe warning level in the country's four-tier system.
Some areas in the affected regions were "extremely likely to be hit", Xinhua reported, with local governments urged to strengthen monitoring and issue timely warnings to residents. Climate change, which scientists say is exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, is making such extreme weather phenomena more frequent and more intense.
Authorities in Beijing this week issued the second-highest heat warning for the capital on one of its hottest days of the year so far. Last year was China's hottest on record and the past four years were its warmest ever. China is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter but is also a renewable energy powerhouse, seeking to cut carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2060.
