Typhoon Narra Sends Record Floodwater Through Southern China

Typhoon Narra has triggered widespread flooding across southern China, forcing authorities to relocate at least 54,000 people in Guangxi, according to state television reporting cited by The Guardian. More than 15,000 people were evacuated from Chongzuo on Tuesday after floodwater rose beyond a record level set in 2008. The city, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is known for its waterfalls and karst limestone landscape, but river water spilled into urban areas as the storm brought heavy rain to the region. Images from Chongzuo showed floodwater reaching the rooftops of some buildings and surrounding power lines. Local authorities ordered businesses and tourist operations to close and told evacuated residents not to return to areas considered at high risk. Narra made landfall as a tropical storm on Tuesday evening in Hainan, a southern Chinese island province, after remaining over the Beibu Gulf for several days. Its rainfall also affected Guangdong, while additional torrential rain was forecast for parts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian through Wednesday. Heavy rain was also expected in parts of Vietnam. The flooding in China formed part of a wider period of severe weather in the region. A separate storm system in Taiwan left one person dead and four missing after flooding in Tainan and Kaohsiung, according to the Taiwanese government. Almost a metre of rain fell in Kaohsiung over three days from Sunday to Tuesday, exceeding the rainfall recorded there during Typhoon Morakot in 2009, the government said. Meanwhile, Typhoon Saudel was moving toward southern Japan and northern Taiwan. Japan’s weather agency warned of destructive winds and high seas around Okinawa’s southwestern islands. Taiwan’s weather agency said the storm was expected to pass north of the island from late Thursday into Friday, although its strength was forecast to decline and the timing and extent of its rainfall remained uncertain. Saudel was also forecast to reach China’s southeastern Fujian province from late Thursday into early Friday.