Heavy rainfall from Typhoon Saudel has triggered severe flooding and landslides across southeast China, with record-breaking downpours in Fujian province overwhelming local infrastructure. Authorities evacuated nearly 600,000 people from high-risk zones, while flash floods stranded thousands in schools and destroyed hundreds of homes after a river embankment breach. Landslides in Jiangxi province have also left fatalities and missing persons, compounding the region’s growing humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, extreme weather patterns persist globally, with thunderstorms battering northwest South Africa and scorching heat gripping parts of the central-southern United States.
Torrential rain causes widespread damage; while north-west South Africa hit by thunderstorms and central-southern US faces oppressive heatTyphoon Saudel brought days of torrential rain to Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces in south-east China last week. The city of Putian, in Fujian province, recorded 416.5mm of rain in a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday, with surrounding villages recording more than 500mm in the same period. In Fujian, authorities estimate that almost 600,000 people were evacuated from high-risk, flood-prone areas. A further 128,000 people in 53 counties were also affected across Jiangxi, with emergency evacuations affecting 9,000 people.Flooding, landslips and infrastructure damage were reported widely in the region. More than 2,500 teachers and students were trapped in a school compound in the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou on Wednesday after extreme rainfall caused flash floods in low-lying areas. At least 1,260 people reportedly had to be rescued in Putian after a river embankment collapsed on Thursday, flattening 100 homes. On Saturday, a landslip in a village of Suichuan county, in Jiangxi province, killed three people and nine others remaining missing. Continue reading...
