Tropical Storm Podul has unleashed torrential rainfall across southern China, compounding the challenges faced by the region after record downpours last week. The storm, which previously affected Taiwan, resulted in significant disruptions to hospitals, schools, and law courts in Hong Kong. Authorities issued their highest-level “black” rainstorm warning as the storm approached, prompting the cancellation of a court hearing for media tycoon and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai.
Supporters gathered outside the court, shielded by umbrellas, as authorities shut down outpatient clinics and closed schools for the day. Flights across the region also experienced major disruptions, with approximately 20 percent of morning flights cancelled, according to data from Flightmaster. The storm brought more than 70 millimetres of rain per hour to parts of the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangxi.
The impact on Quanzhou, a key hub for textiles, footwear, and apparel, was notable, with over a third of flights cancelled. Analysts have raised concerns about the increasing threat posed by extreme weather events to growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy. The government has been grappling with record rainfall in both the north and south, compounded by prolonged heatwaves in the interior.
On Thursday, the Chinese government announced an additional 430 million yuan (approximately $92 million AUD) in disaster relief funding. This brings the total allocated for disaster response since April to at least 5.8 billion yuan.
Podul made landfall in Fujian province just after midnight on Thursday, having weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm following its assault on Taiwan, where winds reached up to 191 km/h and left one person missing along with numerous injuries. Despite its diminishing strength, the storm’s residual effects are expected to cause further disruption in southern China, which is still recovering from last week’s historic rainfall.
In the past week, Hong Kong experienced its heaviest August rainfall since 1884, while Guangdong province faced severe flooding, with 75,000 people evacuated and 623 millimetres of rain recorded in the capital, Guangzhou, between August 2 and 6. This amount is nearly three times the city’s average for the month, leading to at least seven fatalities.
To mitigate flooding risks, over one million cubic meters of water—equivalent to 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools—were released from a reservoir in eastern Guangdong on Wednesday. Additionally, authorities in Meizhou, Guangdong, closed all highways on Thursday morning due to the ongoing downpour, while the high-speed railway linking Shenzhen and Hangzhou, approximately 1200 km apart, was also suspended.
As southern China braces for continued rainfall, the impacts of Tropical Storm Podul underscore the urgent need for robust disaster preparedness measures in the face of increasingly severe weather events.
