With Typhoon Nepartak, China has experienced the worst flood since 1998. (Photo : Getty Images)
The southern part of Hunan Province has been devastated by monsoon rain this week. Photo and video footage show the effects of the bad weather.
In Hunan alone, over 27,000 people are already displaced. There were 1,826 houses destroyed in the southwestern and northwestern parts of the province.
Particularly this year, the rains have already claimed 237 lives and incurred damages worth $22 billion. The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters recently assessed the damage brought by the continuous rain.
Houses were submerged in at least 240 mm or more than 9 inches of flood in Guanshi City in Hubei Province. Firefighters evacuated hundreds of people.
In Jianxi Province, streets turned into rivers with waist-high water. Many drivers had to push their cars through the flood.
Meteorologists also predict more rain to pour in. Major riverbanks such as the Yangtze, Songhuajiang, Huaihe and Pearl have already busted.
The rate of flooding and rain this week is second to the 1998 disaster in China. There were damages amounting to $44 billion then.
Warnings were also issued in the southern provinces particularly in south Yangtze and Huaihe as rains are still expected to continue until Wednesday.
The non-stop rain is caused by the end of the El Nino phenomenon or the cooling of the Pacific Ocean. The change in the ocean's temperature is what affects the change in the global climate.
The El Nino phenomenon hit China in May and in the later part of June. The opposite of this is La Nina. The cycles of both extreme heat and extreme rain bring destructive changes in global temperatures.
