Heavy rains hit 14 Guizhou counties

Heavy rainstorms hit 14 counties in Guizhou province from Tuesday to Wednesday, the Guizhou Meteorological Bureau said on Wednesday morning.

Among them, 11 towns and villages were severely stricken, statistics showed.

The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters started its flood level IV emergency response on Tuesday.

Tongren city was one of the worst hit. About 928,000 people were affected by the rainstorms, 19,416 hectares of crops were damaged and 1,886 houses collapsed, causing direct economic losses of 397.22 million yuan ($64 million) since the Tongren weather bureau issued the first rainstorm red alert on Monday.

Tang Guozhu, a 39-year-old villager in Shiqian county in Tongren, has experienced flooding three times within just three months this year.

"My wife and I had to move to the village committee's office building after the flood hit the village and destroyed our house. My father and sons can only live with relatives", Tang said.

When the latest heavy rainstorm hit the village, the office building also became dangerous.

"We could only live in an abandoned coal plant where many homeless people have to stay together. The crowded space makes us feel depressed," Tang said. "Fortunately, my family are all safe and we can think about our livelihood later after the flooding."

As the continuous rains caused flooding and landslides, Fanjing Mountain, a scenic spot in Tongren, has been temporarily closed since Tuesday and no tourists are stranded.

The heavy rainstorms also seriously affected the province's transportation. The Sichuan-Guizhou and Yunnan-Guizhou railways are both blocked by landslides. In the past week, most trains coming to Guiyang Station have been more than five hours late.

A passenger surnamed Liu who took the train from Chengdu to Guiyang that departed on Tuesday afternoon, said the service was delayed for more than six hours due to the rain.

"There was no cooked food provided on the train and we didn't know how long we would wait, which made us irritated," Liu said.