The Guangdong production hub has suspended classes, office work and public transportation amid rising water and the threat of landslides. In neighboring Jiangxi Province, nearly 500,000 people have seen their homes damaged and their lives uprooted. About the same number has been affected in Guangdong, mainly in Shaoguan, Heyuan and Meizhou. A car soaking wet on a wet road in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images Heavy rains tore down roads in some parts of the city and swept away homes, cars and crops, with more rain forecast for the coming days. Chinese authorities on Sunday issued the first red alert of the year, the most stringent warning for possible mountain torrents. In Zhejiang Province a little further north, inflatable boat rescue crews rescued residents trapped in their homes in flooded villages. Rescuers are delivering food to villagers trapped in a flood-hit area of Shangrao, Jiangxi Province. Photo: VCG / Getty Images China regularly experiences floods during the summer months, most often in the central and southern regions that tend to receive the most rainfall. This year’s floods are the worst in decades in some areas and add to the strict Covid-19 regulations that have strangled travel, employment and ordinary life in much of the country. China’s worst floods in recent years were in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and nearly 3 million homes were destroyed, mostly along the Yangtze, China’s strongest river. The government has invested heavily in flood control and hydroelectric projects such as the huge Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze. Globally, the most intense tropical storms are increasing as a result of climate change, leading to increased floods that threaten lives, crops and groundwater. A man walks through the water in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
