Middle, low reaches of Yangtze see strongest rainfall since flood season

More than 10 provinces and regions in China located along the Yangtze River are expected to see the strongest rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday since the country entered flood season in June, which experts warned could bring about secondary disasters such as landslides.

The rain will mainly cover the southern, eastern and central parts of China, including Southwest China's Guizhou Province and Tibet Autonomous Region, East China's Anhui and Jiangsu provinces and Central China's Hunan and Hubei provinces.

The China Meteorological Administration issued a yellow, or Level III, rainfall warning for these regions on Tuesday morning, indicating more than 50 millimeters of rain will fall within six hours. Thunderstorms and strong winds may come as well. 

Heavy rainfall in some parts of the country had caused floods exceeding the warning line in nearly 200 rivers in 16 provinces and regions as of Monday. Among these, eight rivers had record floods.

Wang Gengchen, a research fellow at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday that seasonal rainfall is coming early this year, staying longer and covering a wider area. The reasons are still under study. 

Besides flooding, waterlogging in cities and river breaches, Wang also warned of potential secondary disasters such as landslides and debris flows, which had already occurred in some places.

As of Tuesday, Anhui, Hunan and Guizhou provinces had raised their emergency response to major meteorological disasters to level III. 

More than 2 million people were affected and an economic loss of billions of yuan has been caused by the severe floods since June. 

Qin Qing, a resident in a village in Yanhe county, Guizhou, where waterlogging after a rainstorm has nearly submerged the whole village, told the Global Times on Tuesday that her spice shop at the township center is in meter-deep water. 

Qin moved some precious goods from her shop after receiving a flood alert, but the remaining stuff that is worth about 2,000 yuan ($283) were destroyed. There are 30 to 40 shops like hers at the township center. 


Newspaper headline: Middle, low reaches of Yangtze expected to see heavy rain