Heavy rains continued to hit central and southern China on Friday, causing multiple rivers to swell beyond warning levels and prompting rescue efforts to save stranded residents.
Shimen County in central China's Hunan Province has entered a critical period for flood control following days of persistent downpours. With a high risk of secondary disasters such as mountain torrents, landslides, and mudslides, local authorities have transferred all trapped residents to safety and imposed traffic controls on affected roads.
Torrential rains also triggered flooding across south China's Guangdong Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and east China's Jiangxi Province. From Thursday to Friday, 15 rivers exceeded warning levels, with the highest water level reaching 1.51 meters above the warning line. Most of these waterways have now receded below their alert levels.
Fangchenggang City, Guangxi, saw the sudden onslaught of continuous heavy rain, which caused severe urban waterlogging across multiple regions. Rising river waters trapped 15 residents in Baisha Village of Gangkou District. Local fire rescue teams rushed to the scene immediately and successfully evacuated all the trapped people in batches to safe areas.
In Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, the Moyang River experienced its second flood peak on Friday morning, hitting 6.82 meters, which was 0.02 meters above the warning level. By Friday noon, the water level had dropped to 6.7 meters. Large and medium-sized reservoirs in Yangjiang have cumulatively intercepted over 100 million cubic meters of floodwater, easing flood control pressure downstream.
The widespread rainfall has also extended to parts of east and north China.
On Friday, heavy to torrential rains hit parts of east China's Anhui, Jiangxi, central China's Hunan, Hubei and southwest China's Sichuan provinces, with extremely heavy rain recorded in some areas of Xiangtan and Changsha in Hunan Province.
According to China's National Meteorological Center (NMC), a new round of heavy rainfall will also start to develop from northwest China's Shaanxi, central China's Henan and Hubei provinces on Saturday.
The NMC continued to issue a blue rainstorm alert on Saturday, marking the 12th consecutive day of rainstorm warnings since May 12.
Flood rescue operations intensify as heavy rain hits multiple regions in China
