China issues blue alert for widespread rainstorms

China’s national observatory yesterday issued a blue alert for rainstorms, as incessant downpours continued to wreak havoc across vast stretches of the country.

From yesterday afternoon to this afternoon, heavy rain and rainstorms are expected in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces as well as Chongqing City, the National Meteorological Center said, warning that some areas will experience downpours bringing up to 200 millimeters of rainfall per day.

Some of the regions will see over 60mm of precipitation per hour, accompanied by thunderstorms and strong winds, the center warned.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather-warning system, with red representing the most severe conditions, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

The center advised local authorities to remain alert for possible flooding, landslides and mudslides.

Since June, continuous downpours have lashed large parts of southern China, and the waters of many rivers in the affected regions have exceeded warning levels.

Due to the disastrous flooding, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised the emergency response to Level II on Sunday.

China has sent 1,000 firefighters from surrounding provinces to help battle flooding in the Poyang Lake area in the east China’s Jiangxi Province.

The firefighters include 300 from Zhejiang, 200 from Anhui, 200 from Fujian, 150 from Hubei and 150 from Hunan, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

All five groups arrived at their destinations around the country’s largest freshwater lake by Monday night.

The groups will work with local authorities to patrol dikes and monitor and react quickly if there are any dike breaches, said Wei Handong, deputy director of the fire and rescue department with the ministry.

Home to more than 46 million people, Jiangxi has been among the worst affected areas in recent weeks, as the Yangtze River basin witnessed floods following the heaviest average rainfall in decades. There has been unprecedented flooding along several rivers that lead into Poyang Lake.

The water level at the lake’s key Xingzi hydrological station rose to 22.6 meters at 10am on Monday, breaking the 22.52-meter record of 1998, and well above the 19-meter alert level.

Water level at Hankou hydrologic station in central China, a crucial point of the Yangtze River, dropped on Monday, as the flood peak passed through the section, the Bureau of Hydrology of the Changjiang Water Resources Commission said.

Data provided by the bureau show that the Hankou station in Hubei registered a water level of 28.74 meters at 5pm on Monday, lower than the peak of 28.77 measured at 11pm on Sunday.

Xinhua