Rescuers on boats in China’s flood-hit Guangdong province are racing to evacuate trapped residents, carrying some elderly people from their homes and deploying helicopters to save villagers caught in landslides.
Situated in the densely populated Pearl River Delta, the province once dubbed the “factory floor of the world” is prone to summer floods, and over the years, has erected strong defences against the disruptive effects of flooding.
But since Thursday, Guangdong has been battered by unusually heavy, sustained and widespread rainfall, with powerful storms ushering in an earlier-than-normal start to the region’s annual flooding season.
Precipitation records for April have already been broken in many parts of Guangdong, with the cities of Shaoguan, Qingyuan, Zhaoqing and Jiangmen to the west and north of the provincial capital Guangzhou half-submerged in flood-waters.
No fatalities in Guangdong were reported, although 11 people in the province were still missing by Monday morning, state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported without giving further details.
Across the province, 36 houses collapsed while 48 were severely damaged, resulting in a direct economic loss of nearly 140.6 million yuan ($A30.2 million), Xinhua reported.
In Qingyuan, the Bei River that cuts through the city swelled over the weekend and submerged some houses and shops alongside the Pearl River tributary.
Aerial footage showed flood waters overwhelming a nearby town, leaving only roofs and treetops untouched.
Rescuers in Qingyuan tackled muddy waters, neck-high in some areas, to extract residents, including an elderly lady trapped in waist-deep water in an apartment building, videos on social media showed.
Other social media videos showed water gushing through roads and vehicles in disarray.
In Shaoguan, landslides trapped villagers who had to be rescued by helicopter while other rescuers travelled on foot to reach cut-off disaster sites.
In Guangxi, a region west of Guangdong, nearly 100,000 people have been affected by the heavy rain, with direct economic losses totalling 284.5 million yuan ($A61.3 million).
