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Mass evacuations as record rain, floods strike southern China
- Nearly 150,000 residents flee homes after houses, fields and roads are inundated
- Beijing sends rescue task force to Guangxi and Guangzhou to oversee emergency operations
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Floodwaters engulfed homes, fields and roads in southern China as authorities evacuated nearly 150,000 residents after weeks of record rain.
A task force from Beijing was sent to Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Guangdong province to lead rescue and evacuation efforts on Monday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The China Meteorological Administration said the average rainfall for the May to June period in Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian province reached a 61-year high.
Cars were washed down major roads by fast-flowing muddy waters while sewage overflowed in Nandan county in Guangxi, according to newspaper Nanguo Today.
In Wuzhou, social media live-streams by some of the city’s 2.8 million residents showed floodwaters blocking underground passageways and the Xi River, a tributary of the Pearl River, swollen.
Authorities closed floodgates upstream on the Xi River to reduce the impact of the waters.
The Ministry of Water Resources said water levels in Wuzhou might reach 5.5 metres (18 feet) above warning levels on Thursday if reservoirs were not used to ease water flows.
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