Monsoon peaks in south China, unleashing landslides, disease

Highlights:

• Guangzhou hit by its second-heaviest rainfall this century
• Rainfall across southern Guangdong boosts disease risks
• At least 16 Guangdong rivers rise to dangerous levels

Rescue crews raced on Wednesday to clear debris and flooded roads as southern China braced for more extreme rainfall and spreading infection after some of the worst downpours this century, as East Asian monsoon rains peak.

Forecasters warned of more thunderstorms after the century's second-heaviest August rains pounded Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, forcing its Baiyun airport, one of the world's busiest, to cancel 363 flights and delay 311.

The day before, the skies above Hong Kong and the high-tech cities of China's Pearl River Delta turned livid and dumped the heaviest August rainfall since 1884 on the Asian financial centre.

Rescue crews in Guangdong scrambled to open drains and pump water away from urban areas, state media said, as the intense rain set off mudslides and felled trees on highways, tearing away road surfaces to expose cabling and other infrastructure.

Video images showed roads transformed into brown waterways, threatening to worsen a major outbreak of Chikungunya, fuelled by mosquitoes thriving in stagnant flood water, which had been on a downtrend before the latest rains.

Guangdong had reported more than 7,000 of the virus infections earlier.

China has suffered weeks of atmospheric chaos since July as it is battered by downpours heavier than usual, with the East Asian monsoon stalling over its north and south.

Weather experts link the shifting pattern to climate change, testing officials as flash floods displace thousands and threaten billions of dollars in economic losses.

On Tuesday, Beijing allocated more than 1 billion yuan ($139 million) in disaster relief for Guangdong and the northern province of Hebei, as well as the capital, Beijing, and the northern region of Inner Mongolia, state news agency Xinhua said, including subsidies for damage to grain-growing areas.

Extreme rainfall swept at least five people to their deaths in Guangdong over the weekend, triggering a large-scale search effort by more than 1,300 rescuers.

Sixteen rivers across Guangdong threaten to breach their banks, with water levels at two sites reaching their highest since 2017 and 2018.

The worst may be yet to come, with two to three typhoons expected to strike in August, emergency management authorities said on Tuesday.

DISEASE OUTBREAK

The city of Foshan west of Guangzhou has been the epicentre of the province's Chikungunya outbreak, while at least a dozen more have reported infections, which typically cause fever and severe joint pain, though deaths are rare.

The next few weeks are especially daunting for disease prevention and control, say provincial authorities, after the flood season, worsened by typhoons and heavy rain, boosted mosquito activity.

Spread by the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes, global infections of the disease number at least 240,000 this year.

In a travel notice for Guangdong, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has urged "enhanced" precautions by visitors.