At least four dead and thousands evacuated as China faces ‘once in a century’ floods

At least four people have died and tens of thousands have been evacuated as China braces itself for deadly ‘once in a century’ floods.

Violent storms have battered southern China since Thursday, state media said Monday, with 11 people missing amid the torrential downpours.    

Heavy rain has descended upon the vast southern province of Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers by up to seven metres and raising fears of severe flooding that local media said could be of the sort only ‘seen around once a century’.

‘Three deaths were reported in Zhaoqing City while the remaining one is a rescuer in Shaoguan City,’ state news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities.

Ten others remain missing as search and rescue efforts in the area continue to be carried out, Xinhua added.

A vehicle was seen being swept away in thick, muddy floodwaters as helpless onlookers watched on in horror

The rivers have swelled by up to seven metres, submerging homes, shops, and grasslands in deep flood waters

More than 110,000 people have been relocated across Guangdong as the rain has destroyed homes

At least four people have died, 11 remain missing, and tens of thousands have been evacuated from their homes due to the harsh weather 

China is no stranger to extreme weather but recent years have seen the country hit by severe floods, grinding droughts and record heat.

Across the province, 36 houses collapsed while 48 were severely damaged, resulting in a direct economic loss of nearly 140.6 million yuan, Xinhua reported. 

More than 110,000 people have been relocated across Guangdong, according to the news site.

Of those, more than 45,000 were evacuated from the northern city of Qingyuan, which straddles the banks of the Bei River, a tributary in the wider Pearl River Delta, state media reported Sunday. 

The authorities said the river was expected to reach levels not seen in 50 years. 

Terrifying footage shared on state media and online show large swathes of land submerged in murky waters as rescuers were seen ferrying people on lifeboats in the waist-deep floods. 

Other images show muddy waters engulfing shops, homes, and farmland areas of Guangdong as birds-eye photos of the province show a concrete jungle drowning in flood waters.

On Monday, authorities raced to rescue villagers caught in landslides and to evacuate trapped residents, dispatching helicopters and carrying the elderly on their backs through the deluge from their homes.

Across the province, 36 houses collapsed while 48 were severely damaged, according to state news agency Xinhua

Residents were seen lugging suitcases and carrying children off of small rubber boats as they attempted to find safety from the deep water

A birds-eye view of part of the province shows grasslands submerged in brown water

Residents were seen climbing with suitcases and children off of rubber boats as they made a desperate attempt to reach safety as the freak weather unleashed its hell upon the province.

In another image of the aftermath, a vehicle was seen crushed by a fallen tree as destruction unravelled across the province.

Footage captured on Saturday showed a bridge crumbling and collapsing into a river as punishing winds blitzed through the area. 

A number of major rivers have burst their banks, with authorities claiming they are now closely monitoring ‘ dangerously high’ water levels.

Across the province, around 1.16million households lost power over the weekend, but 80 per cent had their electricity restored by Sunday. 

Flights have been cancelled and delayed at Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou due to continuous rain, while schools have been ordered shut in at least three cities. 

Heavy rain is expected to continue throughout Monday, with meteorological authorities forecasting ‘thunderstorms and strong winds in Guangdong’s coastal waters’ – a stretch of sea bordering major cities including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Authorities warned that the level of a river in northern Guangdong could hit a ‘once in 100 years’ peak on Monday morning, though this had yet to materialise by noon.

Neighbouring provinces, including parts of Fujian, Guizhou and Guangxi, will also be affected by ‘short-term heavy rainfall’, the National Meteorological Centre said.

Rescue workers evacuate villagers stranded by floodwaters with a dinghy following heavy rainfall, on April 21, 2024.

Aerial view of rescuers evacuating trapped villagers after torrential rains on April 21, 2024. Torrential rains have reportedly been falling since Thursday

Resident Huang Jingrong cleans up his car with a boat tied up on the back following the disaster weather

A vehicle damaged by fallen tree trunks is seen in the aftermath of heavy storms in Qingyuan city in southern China’s Guangdong province Monday, April 22, 2024

‘It is expected that the main impact period of strong convection will last from daytime until night,’ it added.

Authorities on Monday issued a yellow alert for rainstorms – the second-lowest in its four-tier system – with high levels of precipitation expected to continue across large swathes of the country.

Guangdong province is China’s densely populated manufacturing heartland, home to around 127 million people.

Once dubbed the ‘factory floor of the world’ the province is prone to summer floods, but since Thursday, Guangdong has been battered by unusually heavy rainfall.

The violently heavy downpours have worryingly arrived much earlier than the flood season, which is typically in may and June. 

‘My rice fields are fully flooded, my fields are gone,’ Huang Jingrong, 61, told Reuters.

Huang was taking shelter under an overpass with a few other farmers from his village, alongside an assortment of personal belongings they managed to save, including a washing machine.

‘I won’t be making any money this year, I will be making losses,’ he told Reuters, estimating his losses at about 100,000 yuan (£11,213).

‘What can we do? We won’t get reimbursed for our losses.’

In the town of Jiangwan, six people were injured and a number were trapped in landslides caused by heavy rain on Sunday, state media reported.

Photographs published by state broadcaster CCTV showed waterfront homes destroyed by a wall of brown mud, and people sheltering in a soaked public sports court.

CCTV reported Sunday that floods as high as 19ft above the warning limit would strike in Pearl River tributaries on Monday morning.

Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense, and China is the world’s biggest emitter.

Scientists say freak weather events have become more intense and unpredictable in China, hitting the world’s second-largest economy with heavy rains, droughts and severe heat that have inflicted a huge personal and economic toll on parts of the country. 

China’s wave of brutal weather comes just less than a week after Dubai experienced the heaviest rain the UAE has ever recorded as the ‘historic weather event’ wreaked havoc across the city.

The United Arab Emirates was thrown into apocalyptic scenes when more than 4.7ins of rain fell in one day – making up the typical yearly average. 

Some vehicles, including buses, were almost entirely submerged by the deluge water while the roofs of shopping centres and public buildings collapsed, sending torrents of rainwater gushing through.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest airfield for international travel, was flooded out by the deluge – leaving tourists stranded in the desert.