San Francisco Frontiers - Rescuers search for survivors of China storms as super typhoon nears

Extreme weather has wreaked havoc on southern and central China this week, with a super typhoon heading towards eastern provinces this weekend.

In the southern region of Guangxi, six people died and at least 130,000 people were evacuated to safety after torrential rain and severe flooding from Typhoon Maysak, officials said.

Authorities said more rainfall was expected in Guangxi and neighbouring Guangdong province on Wednesday.

Fast-flowing muddy water burst the banks of 40 rivers and waterways in Guangxi, damaging nearly 13,000 acres of agricultural land, state media reported.

A resident of Hengzhou city, one of Guangxi's hardest-hit areas, said the flooding had been severe but that the rain had let up on Wednesday afternoon.

"Some houses collapsed... and were washed away" by the floods, the restaurant worker surnamed Huang told AFP.

Workers were cleaning up debris as the floodwater receded, she added.

A hotel employee in Guigang city told AFP that at its worst, the water level had risen to the height of a one-storey house over the past two days.

Residents had to evacuate to hotels or stay with relatives elsewhere, they said.

Videos published by state broadcaster CCTV showed torrents of water rushing past the crumbled concrete walls of a reservoir dam that had burst, while rescue workers wearing life vests were deployed on inflatable boats.

Chinese authorities were sending additional disaster relief like food, raincoats and rubber boats to the region, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Guangxi officials have maintained the second-highest level for flood-control emergency response, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Flood peaks "exceeding the warning water level" by more than six metres (20 feet) are expected at the Wuzhou Hydrological Station in Guangxi early Thursday, Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying said.

"Due to the impact of persistent heavy rainfall and the prolonged passage of floodwaters at high levels, the safety of reservoirs and embankments in the affected areas faces a severe test," he added.

In the central province of Hubei, thunderstorms and gale-force winds have killed 11 people and injured 331, and tornadoes were reported elsewhere late on Monday, Xinhua said.

One person is missing in Hubei, 4,800 houses were damaged and 22 more had collapsed, it added.

- Deadly landslide -

Eastern provinces are meanwhile preparing for the impact of Super Typhoon Bavi, which could make landfall "near the Zhejiang-Fujian border area" between Saturday and Sunday, CCTV said, citing the National Meteorological Center.

The typhoon could also move northwards over waters east of Taiwan and make landfall directly on the coast of Zhejiang, CCTV added.

Bavi week tore through US Pacific territories earlier this week, leaving tens of thousands of people without power on Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Jiangsu's provincial education department suspended "all in-person educational activities" at schools from Thursday afternoon through Friday and urged students and teachers to "pay attention to typhoon safety", authorities said.

Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience intense rainfall while others bake in scorching heat.

But scientists warn the intensity and frequency of global extreme weather events will increase as the planet continues to heat up because of fossil fuel emissions.

Separately in northwestern China's Gansu province, the death toll from a Tuesday landslide rose to 21, state media reported, as search and rescue operations had concluded.

The cause of the landslide was still under investigation, according to local media.

Authorities set aside 70 million yuan ($10 million) in disaster relief funds to help resettle those displaced in Hubei, and another 60 million yuan in reconstruction funds for Gansu.

J.Scott--SFF