The rainy season in China usually causes heavy rain in the Yangtze River region from June to mid-July. However, prolonged days of torrential rain this year caused the Hubei provincial government to raise warnings twice last week.
Record rainfall in and around Hubei province has caused traffic disruptions.
Chinese media said about 3.5 million people in Hubei province, a locality with a population of nearly 60 million, were directly affected by heavy rains from July 4 to 8.
A person stands in the middle of a flooded riverside road in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China, on June 6.
Among the millions of people stranded, separated from loved ones, many have gone through this situation for the second time within six months.
Xiao Can, a girl who recently graduated from a university in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, has been stuck for nearly six months in her hometown in nearby Huanggang city.
Immediately after Xiao and her parents returned to Huanggang, a city heavily damaged by Covid-19, heavy rains caused the water level outside the family’s house to rise to knee-high, making it impossible for them to leave home for three months.
For Hubei residents like Peng Yunze, a man living in Giam Li district, a locality located along the Yangtze River, the `double disaster` has made the economic wound more painful.
Now, his other source of income from rice farming is also threatened.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua has praised the Hubei government’s dual crisis prevention efforts, describing the heavy rains as an `important test` for officials soon after the pandemic subsided.
In Wuhan, a city located at the confluence of the Yangtze River and its tributary, local officials are stepping up monitoring of water levels.
The Wuhan government also ordered the closure of 188 ferry terminals and river ports, and deployed more than 12,000 people to patrol weak spots along the Yangtze River and its tributaries.
Some local residents felt discouraged by the disaster that struck so quickly, so soon after a long crisis.
`Wuhan just escaped Covid-19, now there’s a flood. It’s been an unfortunate year,` said a resident named Mei Renxiang.
Before the persistent rains arrived, Xiao wanted to return to Wuhan, where she planned to get a job in the summer and then enroll in graduate school in the fall.
`My friends and I had planned to meet up, celebrate graduation together and then travel somewhere, but none of our plans came true,` Xiao said.
Many older residents remain optimistic.
Aurora