China battling extreme weather as rains take toll

Members from the Blue Sky Rescue Team, a Chinese civil relief squad, transfer a flood-trapped resident in Wanzhou District, southwest China's Chongqing, July 4, 2023. (Photo by Feng Tao/Xinhua)

CHONGQING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China is making ongoing efforts to battle extreme weather, as rain-triggered floods wreak havoc in southern and central parts of the country.

The Chinese leadership has instructed authorities at all levels to give top priority to ensuring people's safety and property, and to minimize losses through their work on flood prevention and disaster relief.

The latest round of torrential rains since Monday had killed 15 people and left four others missing in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, local authorities said.

The heavy rains, mainly seen in the areas along the Yangtze River, have triggered floods and geological disasters, disrupting the lives of more than 130,000 people in 19 districts and counties, according to the municipal bureau of emergency management.

Over 7,500 hectares of crops have been damaged, the bureau said in a statement.

Rescuers transfer flood-trapped residents in Wanzhou District, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, July 4, 2023. (Photo by Ran Mengjun/Xinhua)

The city's emergency response headquarters office has raised the relief response to Level III, allocating more than 29,000 items of disaster relief supplies, including tents, blankets and folding beds, to Wanzhou District, the hardest-hit area, where record-high rainfall was seen.

Floodwater flowed from a nearby river onto roads in low-lying areas of Wanzhou District, inundating the shops and residences on the ground floor on Tuesday.

Zhou Dong, a sub-district worker, helped evacuate local residents, including 78-year-old Zhang Shenglan, who had walking difficulties.

"Too much sludge in the floodwater had blocked her door, so I had to break through with an axe to help her out," Zhou recalled.

Workers repair power facilities in Caotan Village of Yantouzhai Town, Guzhang County of the Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi, central China's Hunan Province, July 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Chen Zhenhai)

In the neighboring Hunan Province, the lives of more than 100,000 residents in the Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi were disrupted by rain-triggered floods. More than 4,200 residents have been evacuated to makeshift locations, according to the figures released on Wednesday by the prefecture's flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Direct economic losses in the prefecture amounted to about 617 million yuan (85.73 million U.S. dollars), the figures showed.

Another two rounds of heavy rains are expected in Xiangxi in 10 days, which may cause floods, landslides and other secondary disasters, according to the local weather department.

In Sichuan Province, which borders Chongqing, more than 460,000 people have been affected by heavy downpours this month, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said Tuesday.

Across the province, over 85,000 local residents have been evacuated to safe places as a precautionary measure. Thanks to the early warnings and timely measures carried out by the local government, no casualties have been reported so far.

The National Meteorological Center issued a blue alert for rainstorms at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, forecasting heavy rains in parts of Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Zhejiang. Some of these regions will experience heavy rainfall marked by 20 mm to over 60 mm of hourly precipitation.

China earmarked 320 million yuan on Wednesday from its central natural-disaster relief funds to support flood and geological disaster relief work in regions including Chongqing and Sichuan.

Among the emergency funds, 250 million yuan will be used to support flood control and disaster relief efforts, and the other 70 million yuan will be used to support geological disaster relief work, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance.