Heavy rains leave 4 dead, 74 injured in Taiwan

Taipei, Aug 4 Continuous heavy rainfall over the past week has severely impacted several areas in central and southern Taiwan, leaving four dead, 74 injured, and three missing, according to the island's fire department.

On Sunday, a total of 108 monitoring stations across Taiwan recorded a daily precipitation of over 200 millimetres. A site in Kaohsiung reported a weekly cumulative rainfall of 2,759 millimetres, surpassing the island's annual average volume of 2,500 millimetres.

The island's emergency operations center said on Sunday that 5,795 people have been evacuated so far, and a total of 140 instances of road and tunnel closures and 124 cases of falling rocks have been reported. Power outages have affected hundreds of households, while multiple regions have issued red alerts for landslides.

The meteorological department has forecast that heavy downpours may continue in the central and southern parts of the island on Monday. In response, work and classes have been suspended in multiple cities, including Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, torrential rains have battered multiple parts of China, triggering road collapses, resident evacuations and heightened flood risks, as authorities raised emergency response levels and warned of further downpours.

In south China's Guangdong Province, heavy rainfall led to 54 road collapses and the evacuation of over 300 residents in the counties of Fengkai and Huaiji in Zhaoqing City over the weekend.

Rainfall peaked at 258.7 millimetres in the city's Nanfeng Township, according to meteorological data. Red alerts, the highest level for rainstorms, were issued in both counties on Sunday morning.

Emergency crews have been deployed to repair damaged roads, while local officials urged residents to remain vigilant against potential flash floods and landslides, with more rain forecast in the coming days.

Guangdong Province has activated a Level-IV emergency response in anticipation of torrential rain. Parts of coastal cities and counties in eastern Guangdong and the southern Pearl River Delta are expected to experience extraordinarily heavy downpours.

A working team has been sent to Guangdong to support local flood control efforts, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

In northwest China's Gansu Province, flood emergency responses were either upgraded or newly activated to Level-II in several areas, including Lanzhou City, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Dingxi City, and Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the second-highest level in China's four-tier system.

China's Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration jointly issued a red alert for potential mountain torrents on Sunday evening, warning of high flood risks in parts of Gansu between 8 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Monday.

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