Over 40,000 evacuated as fresh flood hit Guizhou county

Just days after Tuesday's deluge, fresh floodwaters swept through Rongjiang county again in Guizhou province on Saturday afternoon, inundating several low-lying urban neighborhoods and causing evacuation of 41,574 people, official reports said.

Aerial photographs taken around 5 pm on Saturday showed floodwaters pouring into multiple parts of the city.

At 11 am, the county's flood control office ordered residents in seven major flood zones to evacuate immediately and announced designated escape routes, dispatching rescue teams to conduct door-to-door checks.

Officials said that 41,574 people from 11,992 households had been relocated by 6 pm, including 39,062 residents of the county's urban area and 2,512 from the townships.

At 12:30 pm on Saturday, the flood control office raised its emergency response to the highest level, forecasting the flood peak between 6 and 7 pm and expecting water levels to reach 253.5 meters, two meters above the safety threshold.

More than 1,000 additional troops from the Guizhou People's Armed Police Force were sent to Rongjiang to bolster relief efforts.

Provincial Governor Li Bingjun visited the hardest-hit areas in Rongjiang and neighboring Congjiang on Friday and Saturday to oversee flood control and early reconstruction work.