Torrential rains, hail, and winds of almost hurricane intensity have relentlessly battered southern China, compelling the evacuation of an entire town in Guangdong province. As a fresh wave of floods struck, buses and helicopters transported all 1,700 residents of Jiangwan township in the Shaoguan region to safety, according to reports citing local authorities.
“I have never witnessed such torrential rain in my lifetime, and neither have my elders,” remarked Jiang, a 72-year-old resident who only provided his surname to the state-run China Daily. Throughout the region, downed power lines and disrupted mobile networks added to the chaos as the incessant downpours triggered perilous mudslides, submerged homes, and washed away bridges.
Since the onset of severe storms last week, the province, once hailed as the “factory floor of the world,” has witnessed widespread devastation, with multiple local rainfall records shattered for the month of April. In Guangzhou, the provincial capital, customers in a restaurant watched in horror as hurricane-like winds uprooted trees and sheets of rain lashed against the streets, as captured in videos shared on social media.
The flood-prone province faced the brunt of severe downpours in June 2022, the most intense in six decades, necessitating the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. The current storms, responsible for at least four fatalities, are attributed to the El Nino weather phenomenon and an unusually strong subtropical high, a semi-permanent high-pressure system circulating north of the equator. Meteorologists explain that the associated warmer temperatures have drawn in moisture-laden air from the South China Sea and even the Bay of Bengal, resulting in the excessive rainfall and strong winds.
