Southern China Floods Meizhou-Dabu Expressway Collapse & Evacuations in Severe Storms

The collapse, triggered by heavy rain, occurred at around 2:10 a.m. on Wednesday on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway, Xinhua news agency reported, adding that the collapsed section was 17.9 meters in length and caused 23 vehicles to plunge.

Meizhou is one of the areas in southern China’s Guangdong that has been badly hit by heavy rain and hail since late April which set off dangerous mudslides, inundated homes, and destroyed bridges.

Relentless rains, hail, and winds of near hurricane intensity battered southern China, forcing the evacuation of an entire town of more than 1,700 people in the province of Guangdong, media said on Thursday.

Buses and helicopters ferried to safety all the residents of the township of Jiangwan in the Shaoguan region as a new round of floods arrived, the reports said, citing local authorities.

“I have never seen such heavy rain in my life, nor have people older than me,” said Jiang, a 72-year-old resident who gave only his surname, according to the state-run China Daily.

Power lines were downed and mobile telephone networks were disrupted across the region, as the rains set off dangerous mudslides, inundated homes, and destroyed bridges.

Since the arrival of powerful storms last week, scenes of havoc have played out across the province, once dubbed the “factory floor of the world”, as dozens of local rainfall records have been shattered for April.