Persistent heavy rainfall brought by a typhoon has continued to saturate southern China for an extended period of seven days. The slow-moving storm clouds, originating from Guangdong on the coast and extending to Guangxi, have led to widespread flooding in low-lying areas, road closures, and the entrapment of local residents.
In the rural county of Bobai within the Guangxi region, emergency responders, utilizing assault boats, have been working tirelessly since Sunday night to rescue individuals stranded in their low-rise homes by floodwaters exceeding 2 meters (6.6 feet) in depth. State media reported these ongoing rescue efforts on Monday.
Meteorologists anticipate that the heavy rainfall will persist in Guangxi for the next several days.
Though Haikui initially made landfall in Fujian province on September 5 as a typhoon, it has since weakened into a tropical storm. However, its residual circulation has continued to wreak havoc in southern China. This has resulted in Shenzhen, a densely populated city, experiencing the most substantial rainfall on record since data collection began in 1952. Furthermore, neighboring Hong Kong faced the most severe storm in 140 years.
Scientists have sounded the alarm that typhoons affecting China are becoming more intense and following increasingly complex paths. This escalation in risk of disaster affects even coastal cities like Shenzhen, which are accustomed to encountering tropical cyclones and have robust flood defense systems in place.
Shao Sun, a climatologist at the University of California, Irvine, commented on the situation, saying, "Typhoons that penetrate far inland impact regions historically less exposed to heavy rainfall and strong winds. These areas often possess lower disaster resilience, resulting in more significant losses."Â
Sun also highlighted the role of the typhoon's residual circulation, which nearly stagnated over the region from September 7th afternoon to the early hours of September 8th. This, combined with a "train effect" of successive heavy rainfall events, led to the situation surpassing its anticipated intensity.
The term "train effect" refers to the cumulative impact of numerous convective cloud systems sequentially passing over an area. This results in a substantial accumulation of rainfall and significantly heightens the potential for heavy or even extreme precipitation.
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