Hundreds of thousands of people in China have been evacuated in several southern China and eastern provinces after heavy rains caused floods and landslides.
On Tuesday, two provinces raised flood warnings as rivers overflowed and floodwater levels reached a 50-year high. Videos on state media show cars being washed down streets and people being rescued by ropes across swollen rivers.
According to weather officials, the area is experiencing its heaviest rainfall since 1961.
Residents of communities living along river banks and in low-lying areas have been urged to relocate to higher ground.
Shao guan, in Guangdong province, has been one of the worst affected, prompting officials to raise the city’s flood alert to the highest level as the city has seen record rainfall since late May.
A similar warning was issued for Guangdong’s Qingyuan city. The rain has disrupted supply chains, manufacturing, and shipping in the low-lying Pearl River basin, which encircles Guangdong and Guangxi.
Meanwhile, in Jiangxi province in south-east, China authorities issued a flood warning after 485,000 people in nine districts were affected, according to Xinhua News.
According to Xinhua, the area suffered economic damage totalling 470 million yuan ($70.2 million, £57 million), with 43,300 hectares of crops destroyed. Local officials have warned that the situation is likely to worsen in the coming days, with rising water levels in the Pearl River basin.
According to China’s National Meteorological Centre, the average rainfall in Guangdong, Fujian, and Guangxi provinces between early May and the middle of June was 621 millimeters, the highest since 1961.
The summer rainy season regularly causes flooding in southern China, but there are concerns that climate change is exacerbating the situation.
In contrast, many areas in the country’s north are experiencing unusually high temperatures, but rain is expected to fall there soon.
