Relentless rains, accompanied by hail and near-hurricane-force winds, have ravaged southern China, prompting the evacuation of an entire town with over 1,700 residents in Guangdong province. Helicopters and buses were deployed to transport the residents of Jiangwan township in the Shaoguan region to safety as flooding worsened due to the ongoing severe weather conditions, according to reports from local authorities.
The unprecedented rainfall has led to widespread destruction, including power outages, communication disruptions, and the collapse of homes and bridges. Jiang, a 72-year-old resident, described the rainfall as the heaviest he had ever witnessed in his lifetime.
The impact of the storms has been felt across the region, with downed power lines, disrupted mobile networks, dangerous mudslides, and inundated homes. Guangdong, known as the "factory floor of the world," has seen numerous local rainfall records broken for April as a result of the recent severe weather events.
Videos circulating on social media captured the chaos unleashed by the storms, with hurricane-like winds tearing down trees and heavy rainfall causing flooding on the streets of Guangzhou, the provincial capital.
Guangdong, prone to summer floods, faced a similar challenge in June 2022 when it experienced the heaviest downpours in six decades, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents.
The current storms, attributed to the El Niño weather phenomenon and a stronger-than-normal subtropical high-pressure system, have resulted in at least four fatalities. Warmer temperatures associated with these weather patterns have led to increased moisture in the air, sourced from the South China Sea and even the Bay of Bengal, exacerbating the intensity of the rainfall and winds, according to meteorological experts.
