Global Courant
Five people have died and three are missing after heavy rains caused flooding and a landslide in eastern China
BEIJING — Heavy rains triggered flooding and a landslide in eastern China, leaving at least five people dead and three missing, while more than 1,500 were evacuated, state media reported Sunday.
China National Radio said floods swept through a village in the Fuyang district of Hangzhou city on Saturday afternoon, inundating many homes.
The rain later led to a partial collapse of the mountains and a mudslide, affecting multiple areas in the district and leaving more than 1,600 homes without power, CCTV said. More than 1,500 people were evacuated, Xinhua news agency reported.
Every year, large parts of China are affected by seasonal flooding, particularly in the semitropical south. However, some northern regions have reported the worst flooding in 50 years this year.
The flash floods have hit several parts of the country this month, causing casualties. Earlier this month, flooding killed at least 15 people in the southwest region of Chongqing.
Torrential rain also turned many streets in Liaoning, a northeastern province, into rivers, prompting the evacuation of 5,590 people, according to CCTV footage on Sunday. About 30 homes and 54 acres of crops were damaged, it added.
In central Hubei province, downpours have trapped some residents in their vehicles and homes. By Saturday night, authorities had rescued or evacuated some 220 people in Xianning city, state media reported People’s Daily.
China’s deadliest and most destructive floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River.
In 2021, more than 300 people died in central Henan province. Record rain flooded the provincial capital of Zhengzhou on July 20 of that year, turning streets into fast-flowing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line.
