Record rainfall and widespread flooding killed four people in China’s southern province of Hunan, with roads in rural areas damaged and access to electricity and the internet disrupted, state media said yesterday.
Days of heavy rains from the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi have breached major dikes and dams and flooded swathes of cropland, with state broadcaster CCTV saying the finance ministry has earmarked funds of 238mn yuan ($33mn) for disaster prevention and agricultural aid.
Weather experts blamed the heavy rain on a combination of a southwest monsoon and the outer cloud system from Gaemi, which made landfall in China last week.
In Zixing county, the extreme weather fuelled by the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit China this year has affected almost 90,000 people, damaging about 1,400 homes and tearing up about 1,300 roads, the People’s Daily said on its website.
People walk through a rainstorm in Beijing yesterday.
