An update from China’s Ministry of Emergency Management of 17 June reveals that 88 people have now died as a result of heavy rain, floods and landslides in southern and central provinces over the last few weeks.

Flooding first struck the southern provinces of Jiangxi, Guangxi and Guizhou from early June. According to the Ministry of Emergency Management, the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong and Chongqing have also been affected since then.

According to the Ministry report, over 6 million have been affected, with 388,000 displaced. As many as 17,000 houses have collapsed and a further 82,000 damaged. As well as a rising death toll, 17 people are thought to be still missing. Emergency services have rescued a total of 5,060 people and assisted with the emergency evacuation of 14,542 people. Vast areas of crops have also suffered damage.

Heavy rain has pounded southern, south eastern and central areas of the country since early June, with many locations repeatedly seeing over 100mm of rain in a 24 hour period. Figures from China’s National Meteorological Center reveal that, over the last 10 days some southern and eastern areas of the country have seen 2 to 4 times the amount of rain normally expected at this time of year.

File photo – floods in China. Photo: Brandon / Flickr Under CC BY-NC 2.0