China’s North and West Brace for Flooding After Heavy Rains

• China’s northern and western regions brace for heavy rains.
• Severe storms in southwest China lead to devastating flash floods.
• Extreme rainfall is increasingly becoming a significant issue for China.

BEIJING: Northern and western China prepared for more flash floods and landslides on Thursday as the seasonal ‘Plum Rains’ caused widespread destruction, prompting thousands of rescue workers to assist those trapped by rising waters.

Red alerts were issued as the storms moved from the southwestern province of Sichuan to the northwestern province of Gansu, reaching up to the northeastern province of Liaoning.

Train services to Beijing encountered disruptions, with some cancellations and delays at one of the city’s airports late Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

Meteorologists attribute the extreme rainfall and serious flooding to climate change, presenting significant challenges for policymakers as they threaten to outstrip aging flood defenses, displace millions, and disrupt China’s $2.8 trillion agricultural sector.

The economic toll from natural disasters exceeded $10 billion last July, coinciding with the peak of the ‘Plum Rains’—named for their timing with the ripening of plums along China’s Yangtze River during the East Asian monsoon.

According to state media, over 1,000 rescue workers were dispatched to Taiping, a town in central China’s Henan province, on Wednesday after relentless rain caused a nearby river to overflow, resulting in five fatalities from flash flooding and leaving three others missing.

In a separate report, two additional fatalities were linked to a landslide at a construction site in Gansu province due to heavy rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday.

During a two-day visit to the northern province of Hebei, adjacent to Henan, Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing urged local officials to enhance preparedness before the anticipated heavy rains, recommending proactive evacuations to minimize casualties, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

While China has a comprehensive weather monitoring and forecasting system, scientists indicate that precise localized predictions remain challenging, complicating evacuation efforts in rural areas with limited forecasting resources before severe weather strikes.

Further south in the Guangxi region, numerous buildings collapsed off hillsides in the past two days after the saturated soil weakened their foundations, local reports stated.

Verified footage from Reuters captured a five-story building under construction in Xinzhou crumbling into a nearby river within moments as the ground below it gave way.

Between June 30 and July 1, the Lengshui River in Xinzhou experienced its most severe flooding on record since 2005, according to local media sources citing the Ministry of Water Resources.

In Pingliu Village, around 50 miles west of Xinzhou, 21 residents from seven households were evacuated on Tuesday after a landslide resulted in the collapse of two homes and damages to four others, other local media reported.

In contrast, the national meteorological center has forecasted scorching temperatures along the eastern coastline of the country.