On Tuesday, Chinese state media released details of a catastrophic flash flooding event triggered by extreme torrential rain that struck the southern Chinese city of Qinzhou, located in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The disaster left motor vehicles fully submerged in urban streets and forced emergency responders to evacuate more than 200 local residents from high-risk areas.
According to official reports from China’s state-run news agency Xinhua, specialized rescue teams deployed inflatable rescue craft to extract residents who had become trapped inside their flooded homes. Broadcast footage released by Xinhua captured first responders wading through chest-deep floodwaters to reach stranded civilians, with firefighters carrying elderly residents to safety on foot.
Local meteorological authorities confirmed that Qinzhou’s monitoring station recorded total precipitation exceeding 270 millimeters, equivalent to roughly 10 inches, over the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. on Monday. This figure marks the highest single-day April rainfall ever recorded in the city since systematic meteorological tracking began.
In an official statement posted to the popular Chinese social platform WeChat, local meteorologist Lin Nan noted that intense rainfall events of this magnitude in coastal regions of South China almost always occur after the summer monsoon arrives, which typically falls between mid-to-late May. Lin emphasized that a heavy downpour of this scale in late April is an extremely rare climatic anomaly for the area.
As of Tuesday morning, emergency updates from Chinese emergency management sector media confirmed that all city schools had resumed normal classes, and most urban road traffic networks had returned to their regular operational status, signaling the initial phase of post-flood recovery is underway.