21 Dead, Over 6,000 Evacuated As Heavy Rainfall Batters Central China

Beijing: a minimum of 21 people died as heavy downpours struck central China’s Hubei province, authorities said Friday, weeks after record floods killed hundreds during a neighbouring province.
China has been battered by unprecedented rains in recent months, extreme weather that experts say is increasingly common thanks to heating .

In Hubei, torrential rains caused power cuts and landslides, destroying many homes and forcing the evacuation of nearly 6,000 people, the province’s Emergency Management Bureau said, as reservoirs reach dangerous levels.

“Twenty-one people were killed and 4 others are missing as heavy rain lashed townships from Wednesday,” state broadcaster Xinhua reported Friday.

Footage showed families wading in water that had risen to almost hip level and carrying essentials in plastic bags in Yicheng, which saw a record 480 millimetres (around 19 inches) of rain on Thursday. Rescuers carried people to safety on bulldozers.

“Yesterday the water levels rose to about two to 3 metres. My neighbour’s house was completely destroyed,” a resident from one among the worst affected areas within the city of Suizhou told local media.

“We haven’t seen such a lot rain in 20 or 30 years.”

Hundreds of firefighters and thousands of police and military are dispatched to the worst affected areas, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said.

Around 100,000 people were evacuated within the southwestern province of Sichuan last weekend as heavy rains caused several landslides.

More than 300 people were killed in central China’s Henan province last month after record downpours dumped a year’s worth of rain on a city in three days.

China’s Meteorological Administration warned that heavy rainfall was likely to continue until next week, with regions along the Chang Jiang , including Shanghai, susceptible to flooding.