Guangxi Floods Kill 39 After Reservoir Breach

Flooding in China's southern Guangxi region has killed 39 people and left nine missing, local officials said on July 9. Twenty-six of the deaths were linked to a breach at the Liulan Reservoir in Hengzhou, the worst-hit area in a week of record rainfall.

Ding Wei, a deputy mayor of Nanning, said five of the 26 victims from the Liulan disaster had yet to be formally identified. The regional death and missing-person totals may overlap while forensic work continues, officials said.

Tropical Storm Maysak brought prolonged rain to Nanning, Guigang, Fangchenggang and Qinzhou in early July. Hengzhou's Xiaoyi township recorded 413 millimetres of rain in 24 hours. Binyang county averaged 294.7 millimetres, while its wettest monitoring station received 791.7 millimetres, breaking local records.

On July 6, the Liulan and Yunbiao reservoirs in Hengzhou overtopped and developed breaches. Water swept into villages, fields and roads downstream. In Dongwei village, one of the worst-affected areas, rescue crews used inflatable boats to search homes and move residents to safety.

By the evening of July 7, officials had reported problems at four reservoirs in Nanning and five in Guigang. More than 240,000 people in the two cities had been affected and about 116,000 had been moved to temporary accommodation. Guangxi's hydrological authorities issued their highest flood warning as the Xijiang and Yujiang rivers and several smaller waterways continued to rise.

Days of rain had already saturated the ground and filled rivers before the heaviest downpours arrived. Runoff then reached several reservoirs and river systems at roughly the same time. Floodwater also cut roads, electricity and mobile networks in low-lying communities, slowing evacuation and rescue work. Some villages in Hengzhou could be reached only by boat.

Liulan and Yunbiao were both built in 1958 and have homogeneous earth dams. Nanning officials said the immediate danger at both sites had eased and that the water at Liulan had fallen below the dam's bedrock level. Authorities have not yet published findings on why the breaches occurred or whether warnings and evacuations gave residents enough time to leave.

By 11am on July 9, Nanning had moved 64,500 people, including 54,500 in Hengzhou and 9,321 in Binyang. Guangxi said 8,342 military personnel, firefighters, police, utility workers and civilian rescuers had joined the operation, supported by more than 1,700 vehicles and 5,700 boats and other pieces of rescue equipment.

As the water receded, crews began restoring communications and transport links. By July 9, 87.7% of mobile base stations in Hengzhou and Binyang were working again and power had been restored to 63,000 households. Five sections of expressway, 32 sections of national and provincial roads and 47 rural roads had reopened.

The flood also destroyed a snake farm in Dengwei village, Yunbiao township. Residents and local workers told Chinese media that an estimated 800 to 900 snakes escaped, including cobras as well as non-venomous species. Forestry officers searched homes on July 9 and removed several cobras. They cautioned that some snakes found after the flood may have been washed down from nearby hills rather than coming from the farm.

Relatives and villagers said a woman in her sixties was bitten by a cobra carried into her home by the flood on July 6. With roads and communications down, she could not be taken to hospital in time and died two days later, they said. Another resident was bitten while cleaning a house and survived after receiving treatment. A separate online claim that a snake farm near Guigang Garden Expo Park had flooded and several people had been bitten was rejected by Guangxi's official fact-checking platform; it did not refer to the Dengwei incident.

At a pig farm in Wangling township, Binyang, video recorded on July 8 showed carcasses floating in floodwater, some already darkened by decomposition. The county government confirmed that the farm, which had taken in more than 4,000 pigs, had been inundated but said the number of animals killed was still being counted. Deep water initially kept vehicles out and delayed recovery of the carcasses. Disinfection and disposal began when the water level fell on July 9.

Guangxi's disease control centre warned that animal remains, sewage and rubbish can contaminate water in the hot and humid conditions that follow a flood. That can raise the risk of gastrointestinal, mosquito-borne and skin infections, as well as livestock disease. Nanning said no cluster of infectious disease had been reported at evacuation centres as of July 9.

More than 4,200 workers had been assigned to remove mud and rubbish, while over 300 health specialists carried out disinfection and disease monitoring. Emergency officials said on July 11 that roads, water facilities, power lines and communications were still being repaired in parts of Binyang and Hengzhou. A full estimate of the economic damage has not been released.

Sources: Xinhua's July 9 account of the casualties, evacuation and infrastructure recovery; Xinhua reporting from the Hengzhou rescue operation; updates from China's flood-control authorities and the Guangxi emergency management department; on-the-ground interviews about the Dengwei snake farm, republished by The Paper; Binyang county's statement on the pig farm; and Guangxi CDC's post-flood health guidance. Photo source pages are available through People.cn's photo service and People.cn Guangxi. The cause of the reservoir breaches remains under investigation.