Flooding was expected in parts of southern China Thursday as heavy rains pushed water levels in the Pearl River delta to their highest in nearly a century.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from the region’s worst-affected areas, including Guangdong province, a manufacturing and logistics hub that is home to China’s tech capital Shenzhen.
The Chinese Ministry of Water Resources issued its highest flood warning for the Pearl River basin on Wednesday, stating that water levels at one location “surpassed historical records” and that the provincial capital Guangzhou would be affected.
Images from Shaoguan, north of Guangzhou, showed residents making their way through flooded main roads on Wednesday, with water reaching the tops of cars in some areas.
People were seen clearing away debris as the muddy floodwater inundated shops and buildings.
Guangzhou and Shenzhen are economic powerhouses in the Pearl River delta, as are several smaller but densely populated cities with major manufacturing and other industries.
Provincial emergency management authorities estimated direct economic losses at 1.7 billion yuan ($253 million) earlier this week.
At-risk areas in Guangdong have been ordered to take all necessary precautions, including suspending work at factories and closing schools, in order to minimize damage.
Other parts of southern China, including the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangxi, have also experienced record rains this month, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.
Summer floods are common in parts of China, but they have become more severe in recent years due to climate change.
So far, Chinese authorities have not linked this year’s extreme floods to climate change.
Water levels have surpassed the highest recorded in 1931 and are approaching the area’s worst floods in 1915, according to some local media.
