Heavy rains lashed southern China over the weekend and into Tuesday, causing rivers to overflow, triggering landslides and collapsing roads and homes.
Landslides and flash floods have killed at least nine people in China’s most populous province of Fujian and neighboring Guangdong, with dozens still trapped or missing as of Tuesday.
Days of heavy rain have forced thousands to evacuate and left more than 100,000 homes without power as areas were flooded.
At least 17 rivers in Guangdong province, which has a population of about 127 million, had exceeded warning levels as of Monday, local media said.
Video footage showed hundreds of buildings collapsing, before a bridge collapsed into fast-flowing waters and sending debris washing across city streets.
While officials and rescue workers were trying to control floods in southern China, they faced the opposite problem in the dry north, where high temperatures and little or no rainfall have led to warnings of crop damage in farming areas across the country. China’s finance ministry said Tuesday it had allocated $61 million to help with replanting, watering and fertilizing areas affected by the recent heat and lack of rain.
Officials in central China’s Henan province last week increased the amount of water flowing from local reservoirs to ease the drought.
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, noted the casualties on Tuesday afternoon and said flood control and prevention efforts would become increasingly difficult as China enters its annual flood season, according to Chinese state media.
Officials warned that the severe weather would continue. The National Weather Service issued storm and landslide warnings Tuesday for southern states already battered by heavy rains, and warned that temperatures could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit in northern areas.
In April, reports suggested nine rivers were at risk of flooding, leading to the evacuation of nearly 20,000 people from northern Guangdong province.
Last year, unusually heavy rains disrupted the summer wheat harvest in Henan province. Just weeks later, the heaviest rains in more than a century battered northern China, forcing the evacuation of nearly a million people in neighboring Hebei province and villages around Beijing, sparking outrage as authorities diverted floodwaters to protect the capital.
