Recent severe rainfall has plagued southern China for the past week, with 27 rivers experiencing floods exceeding the warning level. Provinces such as Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei have been heavily affected, leading to over 400,000 people being affected.
According to reports from CCTV, as of 8 a.m. on the 22nd, 27 rivers including the main stream and tributaries of the Liu River in Guangxi, the Ba La River tributary of the Yuanjiang River in Guizhou, the Jiu Mo River tributary of the You River in Yunnan, and the Mengtong River tributary of the Lancang River have all experienced flooding exceeding the warning level, with the highest exceeding 3.71 meters.
Four small to medium-sized rivers in Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan have exceeded the warning level by 0.01 to 2.51 meters, with the Mengtong River in Yunnan experiencing its largest flood since 1979. Additionally, in Jiangsu, eight stations have reported water levels exceeding the warning level by 0.02 to 0.51 meters.
As a result, many areas are heavily flooded, impacting seven cities and prefectures including Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, Zhangjiajie City, and Changde City, with a total of over 400,000 people affected and more than 110,000 people evacuated. The Ministry of Water Resources has activated a level IV emergency response for flood defense in six provinces including Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, and Guizhou.
Reportedly, the ongoing heavy rainfall has already led to at least four deaths. In Zhangjiajie, a woman was swept away by floodwaters and confirmed dead. In Longshan County, Xiangxi Prefecture, four individuals went missing after attempting to move cars into an underground parking lot due to flooding, with one person rescued and three others found dead. Additionally, in Cili County, Zhangjiajie, a couple in their sixties is suspected to have been washed away by floodwaters, with their whereabouts still unknown. Given the Chinese Communist Party’s tendency to conceal disaster information, the actual situation may be more severe.
The China Meteorological Administration has continued to issue a blue alert for heavy rain on June 23 at 10 a.m. It is forecasted that from 2 p.m. on June 23 to 2 p.m. on June 24, there will be heavy to torrential rain in parts of southern Gansu, northern Sichuan Plateau, western Sichuan Basin, southeastern Guizhou, central and southwestern Hunan, central and northern Jiangxi, central and northern Zhejiang, northwest Fujian, northern Guangxi, western Yunnan, and southeastern Tibet, with some areas expected to receive 100 to 150 mm of heavy rain.