Highest-level rainstorm warning issued in south China’s Guangdong

The Chinese government has issued its highest-level rainstorm warning and evacuated more than 100,000 people as rain continues to lash the south of the country.

Beijing raised the alert on Tuesday as ongoing storms threatened to worsen already massive flooding in Guangdong province. Four people were reported killed over the weekend, while 10 others are missing.

Torrential rains have been swelling rivers in Guangdong, prompting state media to warn of the risk of floods at a level “seen around once a century”.

State news agency Xinhua said 110,000 residents across the province had been relocated since the downpours started. Guangdong is China’s manufacturing heartland, home to about 127 million people.

“Please quickly take precautions and stay away from dangerous areas such as low-lying areas prone to flooding,” authorities in the coastal city of Shenzhen – China’s third largest – said as the red alert was issued.

“Pay attention to heavy rains and resulting disasters such as water logging, flash floods, landslides, mudslides, and ground caving in,” they warned.

Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense. China is the world’s biggest emitter.

In recent years China has been hit by severe floods, grinding droughts and record heat.

That has helped make the authorities swift to respond, lowering the number of casualties compared with previous decades.

Shenzhen experienced in September its heaviest rains since records began in 1952. The nearby semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong saw its heaviest rainfall in nearly 140 years.

Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, according to a report issued by the United Nations on Tuesday, with floods and storms a major cause of casualties and economic loss.