Massive river flooding expected in China’s Guangdong, threatening millions

BEIJING: Larger rivers, waterways, and reservoirs in China’s Guangdong province are threatening to cause dangerous floods, forcing the government to enact emergency plans on Sunday ( Apr 21 ) to protect more than 127 million people.

Local weather officers called the situation “grim” and said parts of streams and tributaries at the Xijiang and Beijiang valley basins are experiencing top water levels that only occur once every 50 years, according to state broadcaster CCTV reports on Sunday.

Large flood is expected at the Beijiang lake, CCTV said, quoting China’s water source government, prompting it to increase an emergency advisory.

Guangdong leaders urged local governments and communities to begin emergency organizing to prevent natural disasters and quickly distribute disaster relief funds and supplies to ensure the people who were impacted had access to food, clothing, waters, and a place to live.

Due to severe convective wind, which has affected various parts of China over the past several months, the state has experienced fiery downpours and strong winds since Saturday night.

A 12-hour span of heavy rains, starting from 8pm on Saturday, battered the central and northern parts of the state in Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Jiangmen.

Some energy infrastructure in Zhaoqing were damaged, cutting strength to some areas.

” Please glance at Zhaoqing’s Huaiji region, which has become a liquid area. On the popular social media site Weibo, a user claimed that the elderly and rural residents “do n’t know what to do” with power outages and no signal.

A video from a Zhaoqing news agency showed how screaming wet flood waters swept one car down a narrow road.

Another motorist described the rain as “like a river” for an hour and a half on the highway as it poured home last night. ” I could n’t see the road at all. “

Some hydraulic facilities in the state are exceeding water levels, wind officials warned, and in the provincial capital Guangzhou, a city of 18 million, reservoirs have reached storm limits, town officials announced on Sunday.

2,609 hydrological stations with daily rainfall greater than 50mm were uncovered, accounting for roughly 59 % of all observation stations, according to data. At 8am on Sunday, 27 hydrological stations in Guangdong were on alert.

To ensure downstream flood control, officials have been using spillways and culvert discharge to lower water levels at the reservoirs.