HONG KONG (Reuters) -Heavy rain in China’s eastern province of Shandong killed two people and left 10 people missing after half a year’s worth of rain fell in five hours, drenching the Laiwu district in the city of Jinan, the local government reported on Tuesday.
The area saw maximum precipitation of 364 millimeters (14.3 inches) that fell from midnight on Tuesday till 5am local time, half of Jinan’s average yearly precipitation of 733 millimeters (28.9 inches).
Flash floods occurred near Jinan’s mountainous villages of Shiwuzi and Zhujiayu, washing away or damaging 19 houses. Rescue efforts are underway and all efforts were being deployed to rescue missing people, authorities said.
The deluge is part of a broader pattern of extreme weather across the country due to the East Asia monsoon which has caused disruptions in the world’s second largest economy.
Southern regions have also been inundated with heavy rain after Typhoon Wipha pounded Hong Kong on Sunday.
Extreme rainfall and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions and wreak havoc on a $2.8 trillion agricultural sector.
(Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast.)
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