The Guardian-Millions at risk of floods in Chinas Guangdong province after heavy rain
April 21, 2024 3 min 483 words
英国《卫报》的这篇报道主要内容是，中国广东省在遭受暴雨袭击后，面临严重的洪水威胁。当地官员称，西江和北江流域的部分河流和支流水位罕见地急剧上升，达到50年一遇的水平。中国政府已启动应急响应计划，保护超过1.27亿民众免受洪水灾害。广东省气象局预警，该省多个地方的强对流天气将持续，并已造成严重影响。当地政府已采取多项措施应对洪灾，包括疏散近2万人抢修电力设施暂停部分地区学校课程限制船只出行等。截至目前，广东省内有27个水文站发出洪水预警，邻省广西也遭受风暴灾害。 评论：该报道在描述事实方面较为客观，但存在一些偏见和误导。例如，报道中提到中国政府强迫（forcing）启动应急响应计划，事实上，中国政府采取行动保护民众免受洪水灾害是负责任的举措，不应使用带有强迫意味的词语。此外，报道过度强调洪水造成的破坏和困难，而对中国政府有效的应急措施和灾害应对能力提及较少。该报道也缺乏对受影响地区民众和救援人员的声援和关切，而这是人类共同面临的自然灾害挑战，需要团结互助的精神。该报道也忽视了中国在防洪减灾方面取得的成就和进步，以及中国对全球气候变化和极端天气研究的贡献。
Major rivers, waterways and reservoirs in China’s Guangdong province are threatening to unleash dangerous floods, forcing the government to enact emergency response plans to protect more than 127 million people.
Calling the situation “grim“, local weather officials said sections of rivers and tributaries at the Xijiang and Beijiang river basins are hitting water levels in a rare spike that only has a one-in-50 chance of happening in any given year, state broadcaster CCTV news said on Sunday.
China’s water resource ministry issued an emergency advisory, CCTV reported.
Guangdong officials urged departments in all localities and municipalities to begin emergency planning to avert natural disasters and promptly disperse disaster relief funds and materials to ensure affected people have food, clothing, water and a place to live.
The province has experienced torrid downpours for several days and strong winds due to severe convective weather, which has affected several parts of China over the past few weeks.
A 12-hour stretch of heavy rain, starting from 8pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday, battered the central and northern parts of the province in cities of Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Jiangmen.
Almost 20,000 people have been evacuated in Qingyuan, according to state media, and some power facilities in Zhaoqing were damaged, cutting power to some places.
Officials in Qingyuan also suspended classes in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, according to local media.
“Please look at Zhaoqing’s Huaiji county, which has become a water town. The elderly and children at the countryside don’t know what to do with power outages and no signal,” said one user on the popular social media site Weibo.
Raging muddy floodwaters swept one vehicle down a narrow street in Zhaoqing, showed a video released by Hongxing News.
“It rained like a waterfall for an hour and a half on the highway driving home last night,” said another Weibo user. “I couldn’t see the road at all.“
Authorities in Qingyuan and Shaoguan in Guangdong also suspended ships from travelling through several rivers, with maritime departments dispatching forces to be on duty, and coordinate the emergency tugboats and emergency rescue vessels.
Many hydrological stations in the province are exceeding water levels, weather officials warned, and in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, a city of 18 million, reservoirs have reached flood limits, city officials announced on Sunday.
Data showed 2,609 hydrological stations with daily rainfall greater than 50mm (1.97in), accounting for about 59% of all observation stations. At 8am on Sunday, 27 hydrological stations in Guangdong were on alert.
In neighbouring Guangxi, west of Guangdong, violent hurricane-like winds whipped the region, destroying buildings state media video footage showed. Some places have also experienced hailstones and major flooding, CCTV said.
In another video, rescuers could be seen trying to save an elderly person clinging to a tree half-submerged in floodwaters.
As of 10.00 am, 65 landslides were recorded in the city of Hezhou located in Guangxi, state media reported.