Tropical Storm Maysak Floods Southern China, Killing Six and Prompting 130,000 Evacuations

Record-breaking rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Maysak flooded villages and farmland across Guangxi, killing six people and leaving 11 others missing by Tuesday evening. The regional propaganda office said 130,000 people had been forced to evacuate.

Heavy rain has battered central-eastern and southern Guangxi since Saturday, July 4, with totals reaching 4 to 16 inches in many areas and exceeding 35 inches in the hardest-hit zones, the national meteorological center reported.

Floodwaters from overflowing reservoirs inundated the Hengzhou village of Pingshan. Some train services were suspended for safety. Lu Xiaofei, who works in Shenzhen, said her brother’s family remained trapped on the second floor of their house in Lu village, Qintang district.

“The water in the house is over one person’s height. They have to all move to the second floor. The power has been out since yesterday morning, and now they don’t have running water, either,” she told The Associated Press.

Local media reported that snakes from breeding facilities were washed into Hengzhou streets, with some entering houses. A villager quoted by Litchi News said more than a dozen people had been bitten. The national meteorological center forecast continued heavy rain across the region on Wednesday.

Super Typhoon Bavi is expected to reach southeastern China over the weekend of July 11-12. Elsewhere in Asia, landslides triggered by monsoon rains killed several Rohingya refugees, including five children, in southeastern Bangladesh. Heavy monsoon rains also left more than a dozen people dead in neighboring India over the past few days.