Follow-aware
Eleven people were affected and tens of thousands were evacuated as a result of heavy rains and floods that struck southern China, according to what official media reported Monday.
Heavy rains fell on Guangdong Province in the south of the country in recent days, causing river levels to rise and raising fears of floods “the likes of which only occur once in a century,” according to official media.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted the local disaster management department as saying, “A total of 11 people are missing after continuous rainfall in various parts” of Guangdong.
She indicated that more than 53,000 people in the province were evacuated and transferred to other places, including more than 45,000 from the city of Qingyuan, located on both banks of the Bi River in the Pearl River Delta region.
The Meteorological Authority expected that bad weather conditions would continue on Monday, and that “thunderstorms and strong winds would occur in the coastal waters of Guangdong,” which could affect major cities such as Hong Kong and Shenzhen, with neighboring provinces such as Fujian, Guizhou, and Guangxi facing “heavy rainfall in the short term.”
Guangdong is one of the vital industrial provinces in China, and it is one of the most densely populated regions in the country, with approximately 127 million people living in it.
On Sunday, official media reported that at least six people were injured due to landslides in the Jiangwan area in northern Guangdong Province.
Extreme weather events are prevalent in China, but they have intensified in recent years in the country, which has witnessed heavy floods, severe droughts, and record temperatures.
Climate change caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more severe and frequent, with China being the largest polluter of these gases.
2024-04-22 23:24:59