Officials warn of more China floods in months ahead

Chinese officials warned Thursday that they expect more flooding in the country in the upcoming months, even as torrential rains in the past week come to an end. Flooding in south and central China since June 2 have caused more than a dozen deaths and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

"At present, the rainfall cycle is coming to an end, but there is still more rainfall ahead," said Tian Yitang, Director of the Department of Flood and Drought Disaster Prevention at the Ministry of Water Resources.

"There might be even heavier rains ahead, so we must be prepared to prevent major floods."

About 228,000 people have been forced to seek emergency shelter due to flooding, the country's Ministry of Emergency Management said. Initial damage was estimated at more than 500 million US dollars, including the destruction of more than 1,000 homes.

Flooding was particularly bad in the southern region of Guangxi, where six were listed as dead and one missing, and in Hunan province just to the north, where seven were recorded as dead and one missing. Seasonal flooding generally causes heavy damage each year in the lower regions of China's major river systems, particularly those of the Yangtze and the Pearl to the south.

Authorities have sought to mitigate the hardship through the use of dams, particularly the massive Three Gorges structure on the Yangtze. They also paid special attention to Wuhan, the first city hit by the coronavirus pandemic, as the outbreak hobbled efforts to prepare for this year's flooding season.

"The time to prepare for floods this year coincided with the impact of the epidemic, so we were as worried as you are about flood control in Hubei," said Ye Jianchun, Vice Minister of Water Resources.

"In February this year, when we carried out flood control work across the country, we also paid special attention to Hubei."

China's worst floods in recent years were in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and almost three million homes were destroyed.