BEIJING: Record rainfall and widespread flooding killed four people in China’s southern province of Hunan, with roads in rural areas damaged and access to electricity and the internet disrupted, state media said on Tuesday (Jul 30).
Days of heavy rains from the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi have breached major dikes and dams and flooded swathes of cropland, with state broadcaster CCTV saying the finance ministry has earmarked funds of 238 million yuan (US$33 million) for disaster prevention and agricultural aid.
Weather experts blamed the heavy rain on a combination of a southwest monsoon and the outer cloud system from Gaemi, which made landfall in China last week.
In Zixing county, the extreme weather fuelled by the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit China this year has affected almost 90,000 people, damaging about 1,400 homes and tearing up about 1,300 roads, the People’s Daily said on its website.
Zixing has received record rain since Friday from the impact of Gaemi, with 24-hour rainfall exceeding 645mm (25.3 inches) at one spot, added the paper, which is the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.
Two days of rain have raised the level of the Juanshui river, breaching three dikes, the official Xinhua news agency said, although one was filled in again on Monday.
The Juanshui flows into the Xiangjiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, and floods rose to a record in some parts, state media said.
Due to the floods and rains, access to power and the internet was severed for many villages in the area, Xinhua reported.
A landslide unleashed by the rain washed away homes in Hunan, killing 15 people on Sunday, state media added.
Heavy rains have also pummelled several other provinces, prompting them to issue warnings and activate emergency plans.
The government met last week to discuss wider measures to tackle natural disasters. China has already released disaster relief funds of at least 6.9 billion yuan (US$951 million), Reuters calculations show.