CHINA: VICTIMS OF DEVASTATING FLOODS SCRAMBLE TO RETRIEVE PROPERTY

As officials issued a warning of more intense rains to come, victims of devastating floods in southern China scrambled on Wednesday to retrieve property from the murky waters.

In recent days, Guangdong province has seen heavy rainfall that has resulted in floods that have killed four people and caused over 100,000 to evacuate.

Even in the lush, subtropical Guangdong province, such devastating floods this early in the year are practically unheard of, and one high-ranking official has connected them to deteriorating climate change.

When the rain stopped on Wednesday, AFP reporters in Qingyuan witnessed resort employees and management using the opportunity to clean off muck from the walkways.

"The water has really risen over the last few days," said Liu Yongqi, 25, the general manager of a local homestay.

"The road was flooded and for five days we could only get to the rest of the village by small motorboat," she told AFP.

"Luckily we had enough supplies here anyway," she said, adding that the cleanup operation would take "another two or three days".

Elsewhere, residents waded through knee-deep water to salvage chairs and other belongings from the floods.

One woman in a conical farmer's hat and rubber boots used a bowl to gather water for the elevated beds in her otherwise inundated garden.

Authorities have warned of more downpours across Guangdong from Wednesday evening until Friday.

Up to 240 millimetres of rain is expected in many areas, rising to as much as 300 millimetres in some places.

Officials also issued a warning over "rumours" that the deluges were causing supply shortages and price spikes for basic goods.

"In order to strengthen management of market prices during flood season... do not fabricate or spread information about price rises, tight supply lines or dramatic increases in market demand," Guangdong's market regulator said in a notice on Tuesday evening.

Guangdong is China's manufacturing heartland, home to around 127 million people.

Parts of the province have not seen such severe flooding so early in the year since records began in 1954, according to state media reports.

"Intensifying climate change" raised the likelihood of the kind of heavy rains not typically seen until the summer months, Yin Zhijie, the chief hydrology forecaster at the Ministry of Water Resources, told the state-run China National Radio on Tuesday.

China is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, but has pledged to reduce emissions to net zero by 2060.

2024-04-24T06:32:20Z dg43tfdfdgfd