Global Courant
BEIJING — Five people have been killed and two are missing after heavy rains cracked a riverbank in a village near Hangzhou city in eastern China on Saturday. Houses have been flooded and people and their belongings have been taken away, state media reported.
Muddy water poured through the streets of a village in Dayuan township, pouring into homes and overturning cars, according to photos published by the Beijing Youth Daily.
China typically experiences heavy rainfall in late July, but storms have become more intense and unpredictable in recent years.
Torrential rain also flooded parts of northeastern China on Saturday, damaging dozens of homes and destroying crops in the region known as the country’s breadbasket.
Nearly 5,600 people were evacuated by authorities in Liaoning province, state broadcaster CCTV reported, after several cities received more than 100mm of rain.
In a district of the provincial capital Dalian, 93 mm of rain fell in an hour.
Rescuers were seen wading through the water up to their knees in inflatable dinghies, according to photos published by CCTV.
About 54 hectares of crops were damaged in the area around Jinzhou and the coastal city of Huludao.
Parts of the northeast were hit by drought in May and June, but recent rains have eased the situation, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.
It added that there are still risks to local crops — mainly corn and soybeans — with this year’s El Nino weather pattern likely to bring more extreme weather.
More heavy rain was expected across much of the country on Sunday, with downpours and strong winds in parts of the northeastern and southern provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian. REUTERS
