China’s south is most affected by the rains, leaving at least nine dead and hundreds homeless

At least nine people have died and 17 are missing as heavy rains sweep across southern China, leaving many homeless.

Several provinces have issued flood warnings and dispatched teams to rescue residents and deliver food and supplies as the extreme weather continues.

On Sunday, extreme rainfall occurred in the city of Meizhou in eastern Guangdong province, causing flash floods and landslides in several counties.

According to the provincial headquarters for flood, drought and hurricane control, at least five people were found dead, 13 were trapped and 15 were missing as of Monday.

More than 9,000 people joined emergency teams organized by the local government, which raised Guangdong’s flood emergency response to Level 3 – the second lowest level of a four-tier system.

Three helicopters and 18 professional provincial teams have been dispatched to the disaster areas, headquarters said.

By Monday evening, 19 river monitoring stations in the province had recorded water levels rising above the warning mark, with the Hanjiang River reaching 55.32 meters (about 181 feet), more than five meters (17 feet) above the trigger level, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

The same report said the water level of the Sanhe River in Guangdong was 48.1 meters (158 feet), a full 6.1 meters (20 feet) above the warning level.

Landslides in neighboring Fujian province left four people dead and two missing in Wuping county of Longyan city in the southwest of the province, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday evening.

Around 47,800 people in Wuping were affected by the heavy rains and 378 houses collapsed, the report said.

According to CCTV, 7.3 kilometers of county roads were damaged and 880 hectares of farmland were destroyed. The economic damage is estimated at 415 million yuan (57.2 million U.S. dollars).

Guangxi Zhuang, the autonomous region bordering Vietnam and Hunan province, issued the orange warning, the second-highest alert level, on Monday evening as rainstorms moved north and west.

Southern China has been hit by record-breaking rainfall since April. The water level of the Bei River, a tributary of the Pearl River, has exceeded a 50-year high, and in several areas total rainfall has reached a monthly record.