Deadly flash flooding triggered by record-breaking torrential downpours has swept across multiple regions of China this week, leaving a trail of destruction that has claimed at least 12 lives and forced tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes, according to Chinese state media reports.
In the central Chinese province of Hunan, Shimen County has borne the brunt of the extreme weather. As of Wednesday, official broadcaster CCTV confirmed five fatalities in the county, with 11 more people still unaccounted for. Large-scale search and rescue operations are currently ongoing to reach trapped residents and locate the missing. By Tuesday evening, local authorities had already relocated more than 19,000 residents from high-risk flood zones, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Meteorological data shows Shimen County recorded a staggering 339 millimeters (roughly 13 inches) of cumulative rainfall over the 24-hour period ending at 7 a.m. Monday. One township within the county saw 240 millimeters (around 9 inches) of rain fall in just a few hours, a total that shatters all historical rainfall records for the area.
Neighboring Hubei province has also been hit hard by the extreme weather. Xinhua’s on-ground reports show major urban streets transformed into rushing brown rivers, forcing rescue teams to deploy inflatable boats to extract residents trapped by rising floodwaters. Dozens of properties have been submerged or completely collapsed by the force of the flood. As of Tuesday morning, Hubei had recorded three fatalities, with four additional people reported missing.
In southwestern China’s Guizhou province, another wave of severe flooding has caused further casualties. CCTV reported Tuesday that four people have been confirmed dead in Guizhou, with five more still missing. The disaster has damaged critical local infrastructure: hundreds of homes have been inundated, key road networks have been washed out, and cellular communications have been cut off in hard-hit areas. More than 3,700 local residents have been relocated to emergency shelters to escape the floodwaters, per Xinhua’s data.
In a separate weather-related incident in the southern autonomous region of Guangxi, 10 people died Saturday when a pickup truck was swept off a bridge by flood-swollen waters, Xinhua confirmed.