Heavy rain, hail and near hurricane-force winds hit parts of China, forcing the evacuation of an entire town.
Local media said on Thursday that more than 1,700 people were taken to safety in Guangdong province.
Buses and helicopters transported all residents of Jianguan Town in Shaoguan District to safety as a new round of floods arrived, reports citing local authorities said.
“I have never seen such heavy rain in my life, and there are no people older than me,” said Jiang, a 72-year-old resident who gave only his surname, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.
Power lines were down and mobile phone networks were down across the region, as rain caused dangerous mudslides, submerging homes and destroying bridges.
Jiangguan Map:
Since the powerful storms arrived last week, scenes of devastation have spread across the county, once called the “factory floor of the world,” where dozens of local April rainfall records have been broken.
At a restaurant in the capital of Guangzhou province this week, customers stared in horror as winds turned into tornado-like gusts and uprooted trees, while fast-moving rain fell on the street outside, videos on social media showed.
The province’s defenses, vulnerable to summer flooding, were tested in June 2022 with the heaviest rainfall in six decades, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.
The recent storms, which killed at least four people, were caused by the climate phenomenon El Niño and a stronger-than-normal subtropical high, a near-permanent high pressure system that spreads north of the equator.
The associated high temperatures attracted more moisture-laden air from the South China Sea and even from as far away as the Bay of Bengal, bringing more rain and wind, meteorological officials said.
