The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 15 yesterday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) urged “all out” rescue efforts.
Dramatic video shared by state broadcaster CCTV showed a torrent of muddy water rushing past the crumbled concrete walls of a reservoir dam that had burst in the southern region of Guangxi.
Rescue workers wearing life vests and helmets searched for missing people, while others were deployed on inflatable boats, state media footage showed.
Photo: CNS / AFP
Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed at least 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, and tornadoes were reported elsewhere late on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.
In Guangxi, heavy rains and severe flooding from Typhoon Maysak killed at least four people. At least 50,000 people were evacuated, but eight were still missing.
Videos of villagers frantically trying to catch snakes swimming in a flooded Guangxi town went viral on social media, with a related hashtag racking up more than 180 million views.
Photo: CNS / AFP
About 800 to 900 snakes escaped on Monday morning after a breeding farm was washed away, Wu Zhi, the head of a local village committee, told state-owned media Red Star News.
Photos showed villagers wading through knee-deep water and using nets and their bare hands to capture the slithering reptiles.
Officials in Guangxi’s capital, Nanning, have raised the flood control emergency response to its highest level.
One person remains missing in Hubei, Xinhua said, adding that 4,800 houses were damaged and 22 more had collapsed.
“This episode of severe convective weather was characterized by its sudden onset and intense, short-duration winds,” it said.
Xi yesterday said that rescuers should “go all out” in organizing emergency operations, CCTV reported.
He also underscored the importance of “treating the injured, resettling affected residents, and carrying out disaster prevention and relief work effectively,” it said.
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience intense rainfall while others bake in scorching heat.
Separately, a landslide in China’s northwestern Gansu province yesterday killed five people, with rescuers working to locate 12 others still missing, Xinhua said, without specifying what caused it.
At least 33 people were initially reported missing after the landslide in a village near Gansu’s Longnan City, it added.
Rescue teams had located 21 trapped individuals, but five of them died “despite emergency medical efforts,” the agency said.
Scientists said the intensity and frequency of global extreme weather events would increase as the planet continues to heat up because of fossil fuel emissions.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060.
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