Extreme Weather Kills 21 People And Damages Thousands Of Homes, China's Hubei Province Issues 'Red Alert' Status

Illustration of a flood in China. (Wikimedia Commons/Huangdan2060)

JAKARTA - Chinese authorities in Hubei Province issued a 'Red Alert' status, after five cities in the province located in central China were flooded due to extreme weather, leaving 21 people dead and thousands more displaced.

Citing Reuters on Friday August 13, the deaths were recorded in Liulin Township, part of Suizhou City in the north of the province. More than 2,700 homes and shops were damaged by the floods and electricity, transportation and communications were also disrupted, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescue teams have been dispatched to the worst-affected areas, including the cities of Suizhou, Xiangyang and Xiaogan, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said.

According to the China News Service, a total of 774 reservoirs in Hubei had exceeded flood warning levels as of Thursday evening. It is known, yesterday Yicheng City also experienced a record rain of 400 millimeters.

The extreme weather in the province has caused widespread power outages, damaging more than 3,600 homes and 8,110 hectares of crops. The total loss is estimated at 108 million yuan or about 16.67 million US dollars, the China Daily quoted the province's emergency management as saying.

It is known that China experiences flooding during the wet summer months. Authorities have warned that extreme weather is now becoming more frequent as a result of climate change.

About 80,000 residents were evacuated in the southwestern province of Sichuan last weekend. Meanwhile, record rainfall in Henan last month led to flooding that killed more than 300 people.

Separately, China's Meteorological Administration warned that heavy rainstorms were likely to continue into next week, with areas along the Yangtze River vulnerable to flooding.

Meanwhile, the country's weather forecaster also issued a geological disaster warning late Thursday, saying areas at risk include the central provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Henan and Anhui, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou in the southwest and Zhejiang on the east coast.