BEIJING (AP) — The Guangxi region of southern China is struggling to recover from devastating floods and destruction brought on by record rainfall tied to the remnants of Tropical Storm Maysak.
By Tuesday evening, officials confirmed that six people had lost their lives and 11 others remained unaccounted for in the region. The dangerous conditions forced approximately 130,000 residents to leave their homes, according to the regional propaganda office.
Some residents were still waiting to be rescued as of Wednesday. Lu Xiaofei, who works in Shenzhen — a technology hub located near Hong Kong — told the Associated Press that her brother’s family was trapped inside their home in Lu village in Qintang district. Stuck in the house were her brother, his wife, their 9-month-old baby, along with the family’s parents and grandfather.
“The water in the house is over one person’s height. They have to all move to the second floor. The power has been out since yesterday morning, and now they don’t have running water, either,” Lu said in a phone interview with the AP.
Lu added that her brother reported the water level rising overnight, with drinkable water nearly exhausted and no contact from local authorities. She noted that many other villagers in the surrounding area were facing the same desperate circumstances.
Elsewhere, residents turned to social media to call for help, sharing videos of their flooded surroundings and describing their lack of basic supplies.
Local outlet Litchi News reported that snakes from breeding facilities had been swept away by floodwaters and were roaming free in Hengzhou city, with some attempting to enter homes. The outlet cited a villager who said more than a dozen people had been bitten.
China’s national meteorological center reported that heavy rain had been pounding the central-eastern and southern portions of Guangxi since last Saturday. Cumulative rainfall totals ranged from 100 mm to 400 mm — roughly 4 to 16 inches — in many areas, while some of the hardest-hit locations recorded more than 900 mm, or about 35 inches. The agency warned that heavy rain would continue to impact the region through Wednesday.
Rail service in parts of the region was also suspended as a safety precaution.
As Guangxi deals with the ongoing flood crisis, Super Typhoon Bavi is forecast to make landfall in parts of southeastern China this weekend.
The severe weather was not limited to China. In southeastern Bangladesh, landslides set off by heavy monsoon rains killed several Rohingya refugees, among them five children. Across the border in neighboring India, relentless monsoon rains claimed the lives of more than a dozen people over the past several days.
