Heavy Rains in China Trigger Emergency Flood Response

Heavy rains have inundated several Chinese regions, with casualties reported in Southwest China’s Sichuan province and Central China’s Henan province, adding more disasters to a year of unprecedented heavy rains and floods in the country, along with extreme weather conditions.

On Sunday, the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Command Headquarters instituted a level 4 flood emergency response, the lowest in the country’s four-tier system. The emergency management authority has also dispatched working groups to provinces including Henan and Shaanxi to assist local officials.

Earlier in the day, heavy rainfall triggered a mudslide in Tianquan county in the city of Yaan, Sichuan province, leaving two people dead and 12 missing, according to state media.

And in Nanzhao county in Nanyang, Henan province, heavy rains since Friday morning have caused flooding and destroyed bridges. The county reported one person dead, one injured and two missing, according to state media. The heavy rainfall has caused severe damage to the county’s infrastructure, affecting nearly 300,000 people. Some 4,000 local residents have been evacuated, according to the local emergency management bureau.

Huang Ming, the minister of Emergency Management, held a video conference Sunday with localities to coordinate flood prevention efforts in the autumn. The meeting noted that this year China faces heavy rains and floods, as well as more extreme weather conditions, making flood control and work safety issues more difficult and complex.

Earlier this year, many cities in China suffered from heavy rainfall and flooding during the rainy season. In July, heavy rains burst the banks of major rivers and flooded streets in several cities in Henan. The city of Bazhong, Southwest China’s Sichuan province, endured several days of heavy rain, directly affecting more than 380,000 people and leading to damage worth an estimated 1.56 million yuan. The Chinese capital of Beijing was also hit by heavy downpours that month.

In July, a new report released by the environmental group Greenpeace East Asia also highlighted the risk of heatwaves and heavy rainfall across major metropolitan regions around Beijing and Shanghai and in southern Guangdong province.

Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and editor Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)

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