At least 6 people have died and 11 are missing in China’s south-western Guangxi province due to floods brought by Typhoon Maysak, states the local government.
The floods, beginning on 4 July, affected 63 counties and 37.5 million people. It also led to four dams collapsing, and water rushing towards downstream villages, reports Xinhua News.
The city hardest hit by the floods is Hengzhou. “The capital of jasmine” is projected to face severe disruption to its jasmine production, further threatening local livelihoods, noted Southern Weekly.
Reports even say the flooding caused several snakes to escape a snake farm and bite local people, causing injuries and even death.
Further north in Hubei, the typhoon brought about tornados of “extremely rare” strength in Huanggang city on 6 July, which blew trucks up to 30 metres away and left 4 people dead and 1 missing, reports Xinhua.
Typhoon Maysak is the first to land in China this typhoon season. Usually the first is relatively mild, but Maysak has brought exceptionally heavy rain to many regions. This is partly because it weakened slowly and its remnant circulation persisted over land, explains Ye Menglong, a weather analyst at China Weather Network.
Other areas in China were also seeing a range of extreme weather this July, from a landslide in Gansu killing 21 people to a record-breaking rainfall in the north-east leaving 3 people dead.
According to a recent study, direct economic losses due to storms accounted for 81% of the total direct losses from all disasters.
Recognising the challenges posed by increasing extreme weather events, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) recently released a National Meteorological Disaster Prevention Plan (2026-2030).
The plan mentions a focus on enhancing capacity to respond to extreme weather. It sets quantitative targets for disaster monitoring, lead time for local severe weather warnings, warning information reach, and public awareness of disaster prevention. It also stresses improving disaster preparedness in key regions and industries, comments Xiong Shaoyuan, deputy director of the CMA.