Heavy rains trigger mass evacuations in SW China, thousands relocated
Torrential rains hit several parts of Yibin city, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, prompting the emergency evacuation of over 6,000 residents, according to CCTV news on Wednesday.
From 7 pm on Tuesday to 9 am on Wednesday, Yibin experienced widespread rainfall, with 44 monitoring stations recording torrential downpours, 49 stations recording heavy rain, 76 stations measuring significant rainfall, 78 stations seeing moderate rain, and 137 stations registering light rain.
The highest recorded rainfall was 231.7 mm in a village of Xingwen county, CCTV reported.
As of 10 am on Wednesday, Yibin authorities had relocated 1,490 people from 582 households in flash flood risk zones, 4,248 from 1,411 households near geological hazard sites, 483 from six coal mines, and 71 from four households at key flood control construction sites. No casualties have been reported.
At 7 am on Wednesday, the Yibin municipal flood control headquarters activated a Level IV flood emergency response. Changning county, Jiang'an county, Gaoxian county, Xingwen county, Gongxian county, and Sanjiang New Area launched Level IV flood control measures, the city's official WeChat account said.
Several expressway entrances in Yibin were temporarily closed due to the heavy rain, according to local authorities.
Since Tuesday, torrential downpours have also battered central parts of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and its western regions, with eight monitoring stations recording extreme rainstorms and 97 stations reporting heavy rainstorms, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
As of 6 am on Wednesday, the city had carried out emergency evacuations for 556 people and emergency relocations for two others, with no disaster-related casualties or case of missing persons reported.
Heavy rainfall has caused six small and medium-sized rivers in Chongqing to exceed warning levels, and as of 8 am on Wednesday, the Yuxi River in Nan'an District remained above the warning level, Xinhua said.