SHANGHAI (CHINA) – In the wake of torrential rain triggering landslides and flooding roads and farmlands, four Chinese cities along the Yangtze river have issued top-level flood warnings.
Experts point to the overdevelopment of flood plains and the ramifications of climate change which is triggering extreme weather that led to the issuing of red alerts in Xianning and Jingzhou in Hubei province and Nanchang and Shangrao in neighbouring Jiangxi.
The torrential rains has left 140 people dead. China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday that the extreme weather has caused economic losses of more than 60 billion yuan ($8.6 billion).
China said humidity carried from the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean was the cause of the weather change. It also said that long-term changes in climate patterns have made the country more vulnerable.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field