Unusual typhoon-like storms have killed at least seven people in southern China’s Jiangxi province since last weekend, and three of the victims were pulled from their apartments while they were sleeping, reports Reuters, cited by Agerpres.
The extreme weather, which began on March 31, has hit nine cities, including Nanchang and Jiujiang, and 93,000 people in 54 counties have been affected, the central bureau for flood emergency control in Jiangxi province said.
On Sunday, unusual storms caused gusts that blew out the windows of two apartments in a multi-story building in Nanchang, the provincial capital. Three people died after being pulled from their beds through the openings thus formed and thrown into the void, according to local media.
Chinese officials said on Wednesday that seven people had died so far in the province and that another 552 had to be evacuated. Also, 2,751 homes were damaged.
Accompanied by spectacular lightning, torrential rain and golf-ball-sized hail, the powerful storms – the most severe in more than a decade – also caused economic losses of 150 million yuan ($21 million), they said. local officials.
The China Meteorological Bureau has issued warnings for violent storms with speeds up to level 12 on the local wind scale, similar to the force of a Category I hurricane.
Storms of this intensity are common when typhoons, as hurricanes are known in China and elsewhere in East Asia, make landfall, but are rare in inland areas such as Jiangxi Province.
The China Meteorological Agency has maintained its orange warning for convective weather phenomena in several regions in southeast China, and strong gusts, hail and thunderstorms will continue throughout Wednesday.
China has a three-level meteorological warning code system for convective phenomena, with orange representing the highest level, followed by yellow and blue.
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