China floods kill 22, force evacuations across seven provinces

China’s latest round of extreme rain has already killed 22 people and left 20 missing, forcing a national flood response across seven provinces as swollen rivers, collapsed structures and record rainfall pushed emergency systems under strain.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources activated a Level-IV flood-control emergency response on May 19 for Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and Hainan, warning that rivers in the Pearl River and Yangtze basins could rise further and that small and medium-sized rivers, along with mountain torrents, could overflow warning levels. Officials urged local governments to issue alerts quickly, move people out of dangerous areas and keep emergency crews on standby.

The heaviest losses were reported across central and southern China. Guangxi recorded 10 deaths after a truck plunged into a swollen river while trying to cross it on Saturday evening. Hunan reported five dead and 11 missing, Guizhou four dead and five missing, and Hubei three dead and four missing after torrential rain collapsed structures and cut communications to some villages.

The storms also displaced large numbers of residents and disrupted daily life far beyond the immediate flood zones. Nearly 24,000 people were evacuated in Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei, while one county in Hunan said more than 61,500 people were affected by the downpour. Schools and workplaces were suspended in hard-hit areas, and transportation and power supplies were disrupted as water rose.

In Shimen County, Hunan, 339 millimeters of rain fell in the 24 hours ending at 7 a.m. Monday, and one town recorded 240 millimeters in just a few hours, breaking historical records. The scale of the rainfall underscored the speed at which the disaster escalated and the challenge facing local officials trying to warn residents before roads, river crossings and village links were overtaken.

Beijing has also begun releasing relief money. Authorities allocated 120 million yuan for five affected regions and another 30 million yuan for Guizhou, where officials cited heavy casualties and property losses. Guiding County in Guizhou launched a Level I disaster-relief response and sent a working team to coordinate rescue, relief and reconstruction.

Meteorologists said the intense rainfall zone stretched more than 1,000 kilometers and was fed by moisture from the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The slow-moving weather system kept dumping water over the same areas, a pattern that has turned summer storms into a wider test of China’s flood defenses, warning networks and emergency response capacity as extreme weather grows more frequent.