BEIJING (AP) — More than 200 people were forced from their homes after intense rainfall created dangerous flooding conditions in a southern Chinese city, according to state media reports released Tuesday.
Emergency responders used inflatable boats to reach residents who became trapped inside their homes in Qinzhou, located in the Guangxi region, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Video from the scene showed rescue workers moving through water that reached their chests, while firefighters physically carried elderly residents to safety.
Local officials in Qinzhou reported that weather monitoring equipment measured more than 270 millimeters of precipitation — approximately 10 inches — in the 24-hour span that concluded Monday morning at 8 a.m. This rainfall total set a new single-day record for the month of April in the area.
Weather expert Lin Nan explained in a social media post that this type of extreme precipitation normally doesn’t occur in coastal areas of southern China until the summer monsoon season begins in the middle to end of May. “It is rare to see such a heavy downpour in late April,” Lin said.
By Tuesday morning, educational institutions throughout Qinzhou had reopened for regular classes, and vehicle movement had returned to normal conditions in most areas of the city, according to reports from a news organization run by China’s emergency management officials.
