BEIJING (Reuters) -Rescue crews across south China braced for a final onslaught of extreme rainfall on Wednesday, racing between heavy downpours to clear mudslide debris and drain waterlogged roads submerging cars, as the East Asian monsoon reaches a peak.
Forecasters warned of more thunderstorms, a day after the skies above Hong Kong and the high-tech cities of China’s Pearl River Delta turned black and unleashed the heaviest August rainfall since 1884 on the Asian financial centre.
Videos showed shopping streets transformed into waterways in China’s southern province of Guangdong, worsening an outbreak of chikungunya fuelled by a surge of mosquitoes thriving in the stagnant floodwaters. Guangdong has reported more than 7,000 cases of the virus so far.
China is being battered by heavier-than-usual downpours as the East Asian monsoon stalls over its north and south, causing weeks of atmospheric chaos since early July. Meteorologists link the shifting pattern to climate change, testing officials as flash floods displace thousands and threaten billions of dollars in economic losses.
Beijing allocated over 1 billion yuan ($139.21 million) in disaster relief on Tuesday to support flood relief efforts in the provinces of Guangdong and Hebei, as well as in Beijing and the northern region of Inner Mongolia, state news agency Xinhua reported, including subsidies for damage to grain-growing areas.
The extreme rainfall is expected to ease in the coming days, after sweeping at least five people to their deaths in Guangdong over the weekend and prompting a large-scale search operation involving over 1,300 rescuers.
Rescue crews on Tuesday rushed to open drains and pump water from urban areas between the showers, state media reported, with the deluge triggering mudslides that brought silt and felled trees onto highways, washing away road foundations and exposing cabling and other embedded infrastructure.
But the rains are pushing Guangdong province’s flood preparedness to the brink.
Sixteen rivers across the province have risen to levels that risk breaching their banks, according to Chinese state media, with water levels at two regional hydrology stations reaching their highest marks since 2017 and 2018.
Even as the East Asian monsoon begins to wane, China’s weather authorities warn the worst may not be over, with two to three typhoons expected to strike in August, officials from the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Tuesday.
($1 = 7.1834 yuan)
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Michael Perry)
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