Historic flooding kills at least 47

This article was written by the Associated Press and was published in the Toronto Star on June 22, 2024.

At least 47 people have died as downpours in southern China’s Guangdong province caused historic flooding and slides, state media reported Friday, while authorities warned of more extreme weather ahead in other parts of the country.

State broadcaster CCTV said Friday afternoon that another 38 people were confirmed dead in a county under the jurisdiction of Meizhou city, adding to nine others previously reported dead elsewhere in Meizhou.

Heavy rains caused landslides, floods and mudslides that severely damaged eight townships in Pingyuan county, where the latest deaths were reported, CCTV said. The heaviest rains were on Sunday, with an average rainfall of 199 millimetres, and one town seeing 365.7 millimetres. It is unclear from the report when the deaths occurred.

The extreme weather also destroyed some 356 kilometres of road.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”