Environment     

Storm alert as rains set to pound southern provinces

Shanghai Daily, July 16, 2012

• China's meteorological authority issued a blue alert, the lowest level in a four-level warning system, last night with heavy rain expected throughout the country's southern regions over the next three days.

  Torrential rain hit Anhui, Jiangsu, Yunnan and Hubei provinces earlier yesterday with precipitation reaching 50 to 80 millimeters, the National Meteorological Center said.

  It expects major downpours in the central and western parts of Hunan Province, central Jiangxi Province, the southern part of Zhejiang Province, northern Fujian Province and the southern Sichuan Basin within 24 hours.

  The rain belt is expected to extend to Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces today.

  Rain will also become heavier in Hunan and Guizhou provinces.

  The Sichuan Basin and parts of Guizhou and Hunan will see falls of up to 130 millimeters accompanied by strong winds and thunderstorms.

  The rain belt is forecast to turn north later this week, affecting the southern part of northeastern China, the southern part of northern China and the Sichuan Basin in the southwest.

  From Friday, sunny and hot days will return to regions south of the Yangtze River.

  Over the next three days, the nation's northwestern regions will see showers with lightning and thunder, while rain is also forecast to persist in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the center said.

  More than 2 million people have been affected by recent downpours, according to Xinhua news agency.

  Since last Wednesday 11 people have died in southwest China's Guizhou Province after rain caused flooding, landslides and rock collapses.

  Almost a million people in the province had been affected, Xinhua said.

  Wuhan in Hubei Province had 161 millimeters of rain within 24 hours last Friday, resulting in serious flooding in many parts of the downtown area.

  Since last Wednesday, Hubei has suffered six rainstorms, impacting six cities and affecting 1.03 million people. Some residential complexes, especially those in low-lying areas, were inundated and firefighters had to wade through chest-deep water to take children to safety.

  A district disease control center in Wuhan had to close with its first floor flooded. The center has removed all its stored medicine and patients have been moved to other hospitals.

  The flooding cut off the center's power supply.

  "We can't work any more, since the floor soaked in water had wires," said Dr Mei Jianyong.

  About 310,000 people in Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province suffered from repeated rainstorms in recent days with many houses flooded or collapsed.

  The heavy rain also resulted in river flooding alerts being issued in many regions of the country.

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