Citizens walk in flood caused by rainstorms on June 15, 2016, in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province of China. (Photo : Getty Images)
Heavy rains battered Southern China earlier this week, with more than 10,000 people evacuated in the eastern province of Jiangxi after a river dike burst, according to local media.
A yellow rainstorm alert--the second lowest in the four-tiered system--was put into effect on Tuesday by the National Meteorological Center, the South China Morning Post reported.
An estimated 13,000 were moved to higher ground in Jiangxi after a barrier along the Chang River broke on Monday night.
The downpour raised the water levels along the river, which pushed up levels at the Bintian reservoir. The dike broke at around 7 in the evening, creating a hole stretching around 100 meters across, the Post reported.
Local officials said they are examining other nearby dikes for cracks and that hundreds of police officers were at the scene to carry out rescue operations. No injuries were reported and the nearest village was 3km from the breach.
At that time, another section of the earth-filled dike also collapsed, a local official told the Post.
The water level has risen to 33.9 meters, which is 5.4 meters higher than the alert level, although it receded slightly when the rain stopped on Tuesday, the official said.
"We have a plan to repair the dike and we are waiting for the water to go down further so that we can start," he added.
In neighboring Hubei Province, the heavy rain has affected 1.33 million people in 27 counties and cities and resulted in estimated economic losses of 986 million yuan and nearly 9,800 hectares of crops ruined.
In Hunan Province, heavy rains caused the water levels of Youshui River to reach 12.7 meters, far above its alert level of 7.5 meters.
At least 35 people have died, 24 reported missing, and 388,000 displaced since heavy rain began on Saturday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Tuesday.
There was significantly more rainfall in Hunan Province earlier this year compared to the previous years, both in the frequency and the amount of precipitation, the state-owned Global Times reported, citing an official from Hunan Province.
Lin Erda, director of the Research Center of Agriculture and Climate Change, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that China's northern region will soon experience particularly heavy rain in the near future.
"China's Yangtze River and Pearl River basins will experience heavier rainfall in El Nino years," Lin said.
The El Nino weather phenomenon has been affecting global weather patterns since last year, with water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean rising at abnormally high levels.
In central China's Hunan Province, rain and floods on Monday caused rivers to overflow and ruin part of the ancient town of Liye, where a large number of bamboo slips documenting China's Qin Dynasty were excavated. More than 20,000 people, including 5,000 tourists, were evacuated, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
