Guangdong’s Power Struggle: Floods Leave Millions Without Electricity
Major rivers, streams, and reservoirs in China’s Guangdong province are threatening to cause dangerous floods, prompting the government to issue emergency reaction plans on Sunday to protect more than 127 million people.
Local weather officials called the situation “grim” and claimed sections of rivers and tributaries in the Xijiang and Beijiang river basins are hitting flood levels in an uncommon increase that only happens once in every 50 years, according to state broadcaster CCTV news on Sunday.
CCTV stated that China’s water resource ministry had issued an emergency advisory.
Guangdong officials asked departments in all localities and municipalities to start emergency planning to avoid natural catastrophes and to quickly distribute disaster relief cash and materials to guarantee impacted people had food, clothing, water, and a place to stay.
The province, a major exporter and one of China’s main economic and trading centers, has been experiencing heavy rains and strong winds for many days, as part of a weather trend that has also hit other parts of China.
A 12-hour period of torrential rain began at 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) Saturday and swept across the province’s center and northern regions, including the cities of Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Qingyuan, and Jiangmen, where rescue teams had been despatched.
According to official media, more than 45,000 people have been evacuated from Qingyuan, and some power facilities in Zhaoqing have been destroyed, causing power outages in some areas.
According to state-run media, torrential rains caused 1.16 million households in Guangdong to lose power. Classes will be suspended on Monday at around 1,103 schools in Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, and Qingyuan, according to Chinese state radio.
WATER TOWN
“Take a look at Zhaoqing’s Huaiji County, which has become a water town. “The elderly and children in the countryside don’t know what to do with power outages and no signal,” wrote one user on the popular social media site Weibo.
A video provided by Hongxing News shows raging flood waters sweeping one vehicle along a small roadway in Zhaoqing. “It rained like a waterfall for an hour and a half on the highway driving home last night,” another Weibo user wrote. “I couldn’t see the road at all.”
Authorities in Qingyuan and Shaoguan also prohibited ships from passing through multiple rivers, with marine authorities deploying forces to patrol and coordinate emergency tugboats and rescue vessels.
Many hydrological stations in the province are overflowing, weather officials warn, and reservoirs in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, a city of 18 million people, have surpassed flood levels, city officials declared on Sunday.
Data revealed 2,609 hydrological stations with daily rainfall of more than 50 mm (1.97 inches), accounting for approximately 59% of all observation stations. At 8 a.m. on Sunday, 27 hydrological stations in Guangdong were on alert.
In adjacent Guangxi, west of Guangdong, severe hurricane-like winds ripped across the province, demolishing structures, according to official TV footage. According to CCTV, several areas have also seen hailstones and severe flooding.
In another video, rescuers were seen attempting to extricate an elderly person clinging to a tree that was partially submerged in floodwaters.
As of 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT), 65 landslides had been reported in Hezhou, Guangxi, according to official media. Heavy rain is expected in Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces till Monday, according to weather forecasts.