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Guangzhou: Massive flooding across a broad stretch of southern China has killed at least 57 people and forced 1.27 million others from their homes, state media reported on Monday.
People were forced to flee their homes across nine provinces, including Sichuan, still reeling from last month's earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said eight people were missing.
Streets and houses along the Xijiang River in Guangdong were submerged in the worst flooding to hit the Pearl River Delta region in 50 years, the official China Daily newspaper said.
"A major flood is feared if rain continues," Huang Boqing, deputy director of the Guangdong flood control and drought relief headquarters, was quoted as saying.
Heavy rain is expected to pummel the southern region over the next few days, said an official at the China Meteorological Administration who refused to give his name because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
"Continuing thunderstorms are expected for the next two days in the Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian regions," the official said.
"The current water level of the Wu River in Guangdong province has already surpassed the dangerous level of 6 meters and is now at 24 meters. People in the relevant areas have already been evacuated," he said.
Rain in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces will further raise water levels downstream, especially in the coastal manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong, Xinhua said. Most of those areas are expected to receive more heavy rain over
the next 10 days.
The worst-hit province was Guangdong, where 20 people died and eight were missing, and 5.76 million people in 17 cities were affected, Xinhua said.
The North River (Bei Jiang) swallowed up a cluster of brick homes with orange-tile roofs on its banks, where about 100 people lived in the Sanshui district of Foshan, a
city about an hour from the provincial capital, Guangzhou.
One man, who would only give his surname, Huang, stood on a dike and looked across the river at his submerged home as his neighbors crossed back and forth on wooden skiffs.
"The water came in fast. It started rising yesterday morning, and by noon our homes were swamped," Huang said.
"We're living on the second floor of the tallest building in our neighborhood. We had to do the same thing during the flood in 2005, which was much worse than this one," he said.
Huang worked in Sanshui's southern port, which was also flooded, he said. Tall towers of shipping containers were inundated with water.
Vegetable prices have risen by 70 percent in four cities in Guangdong including Guangzhou, the China Daily said.
Economic losses have reached 10.6 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) because of the floods, it said. More than 45,000 houses collapsed and 140,000 had been damaged.
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