A road in Guangdong province that runs from Meizhou city to Dabu county caves in due to heavy rainfall. Cars plunge into a nearly eighteen-meter-long tarmac gash and fall down the steep slope below.
Authorities in the Guangdong province of southern China reported that the number of fatalities from a highway collapse had increased to 36, and that scores more had been injured.
The Meizhou city government said on Thursday that thirty additional people sustained injuries, none of which were life-threatening.
About two in the morning [local time] on Wednesday, a 17.9-meter-long portion of the highway gave way. The government reported that 23 automobiles had been discovered in a pit.
The portion of the road above the ground seemed to have collapsed, as did the earth beneath the highway.
Just before the part fell, witnesses drove passed it and told local media they heard a loud bang and saw a large hole open up behind them.
Local media outlets published images and videos of the sight that included smoke, fire, and guardrails on the roadway sloping down into the flames. There was a stack of burnt automobiles at the bottom of the highway.
More calamities probably
In the last two weeks, there have been record-breaking rain, flooding, and hail in several areas of Guangdong province. The provincial capital of Guangzhou saw five fatalities from a tornado last weekend.
Meizhou has witnessed a lot of rain in recent days, and some of the city’s villages were flooded in early April.
Significant rainfall in a separate region of the province last month caused floods that resulted in the deaths of four individuals and the forced relocation of over 100,000 residents.
And last week, a tornado tore through Guangzhou, a megacity, killing five people.
May temperatures are predicted to rise, and the government has issued a warning about potential natural calamities.
According to the disaster management ministry, “multiparty discussions and evaluations indicate that strong convection and heavy precipitation may increase in China in May,” as reported by Xinhua.
There will likely be “a higher risk of geological disasters” as a result of the country’s likely worst-hit southern and southeast provinces, including Guangdong, the ministry was reported as saying.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
