Three dead after heavy rainfall, floods pound central China

Three people have died after being trapped in an underground garage during severe flooding in Longshan county, Hunan province, as torrential rains pounded central and southern China.

The victims were among four people who entered the garage Thursday night to move vehicles. One woman was rescued early Friday and is in stable condition. The others were later confirmed dead, according to local authorities.

Rescue efforts were complicated by widespread flooding, floating debris and poor visibility, with teams using inflatable rafts and surveillance footage to locate the missing, said Ding Hao, from a fire and rescue team in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, who was on the scene on Friday.

More than 28,000 residents of Xiangxi, Zhangjiajie, Changde and Huaihua had been relocated. Since Wednesday evening, torrential rains have battered these regions, which broke multiple local records.

Heavy rainfall has driven up water levels in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across the province. As of 5 pm Thursday, more than 230 reservoirs had overflowed. The Lishui River recorded its first flooding of the year, with stations in its basin exceeding warning levels, said the provincial emergency authority.

Sun Yangfang, a woman in her 40s from Longshan, said the floods are the worst she has ever seen.

"I've never experienced such a huge flood before," said Sun. "When the water rushed into our home, I was really scared." Now her family is living in a makeshift shelter set up by community workers.

In response to the worsening situation, the National Commission for Disaster Reduction activated a Level IV emergency relief response on Friday and sent a working team to the province to assess the damage and support local disaster relief efforts. The Ministry of Natural Resources also raised its geological disaster response to Level III on Friday and dispatched experts to guide prevention efforts, citing high landslide and mudslide risks over the next three days.

On Friday, the provincial meteorological bureau issued an orange alert for rainstorms, the second-highest level in the country's four-tier warning system. Zhou Hui, chief forecaster from the bureau, said the recent rainfall areas have overlapped heavily, and extreme downpours have persisted over the same regions, increasing the risk of disasters.

The Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration jointly issued this year's first red alert for mountain flood disasters on Thursday.

The Zhangjiajie Wulingyuan Scenic Area has been closed since Friday, with resumption of operations pending, according to the area's notice released on Thursday.

Zhu Youfang contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at weiwangyu@chinadaily.com.cn