Extremely heavy rain battered the Mabian Yi Autonomous County in Leshan, southwest China's Sichuan Province, in the early hours of Saturday, triggering flash floods that inundated streets and damaged properties, forcing the evacuation of over 1,400 residents.
The local weather service issued an orange alert -- the second highest in China's four-tier color-coded weather warning system -- for the heavy rain at 01:33 and upgraded it to a red one -- the highest -- at 02:44.
The rain triggered flash floods, causing floodwaters to surge into urban areas.
Several streets were submerged, with large amounts of debris washed onto the roads.
Many vehicles, shops, and buildings along the streets were also flooded and damaged.
Efforts to assess the damage, clear debris, and carry out other recovery work are gathering pace. Measures to prevent secondary disasters are being implemented simultaneously.
As the rain ceased in the morning, debris removal and recovery efforts in the affected areas began immediately.
As the flood has left some residents stranded, local authorities swiftly organized personnel to carry out emergency rescue operations.
As of 07:00, a total of 446 households of 1,455 people had been evacuated and relocated across the county.
"We have mobilized approximately 2,000 personnel and over 30 vehicles and pieces of machinery to carry out emergency response and debris removal across the entire affected area. We expect to complete the road clearance and traffic restoration by tomorrow afternoon. We will soon begin disinfection across the entire area," said Ren Wenfeng, Communist Party committee secretary of Minjian Town of the Mabian Yi Autonomous County.
Heavy rain triggers flash flood in southwest China county
