South China’s Guangdong province has experienced the most severe torrential rainfall in more than 200 years. Luckily, most of the heavily hit areas are clearing up. And relief work is underway.

An excavator works to clear silts in Xinyi, south China's Guangdong Province, May 21, 2016. An extremely rare round of torrential rainfall that happened once in more than 200 years hit a city in south China's Guangdong Province, local authorities said Saturday. Xinyi, a small, county-level city in Maoming, saw 429.5 millimeters of rainfall in just six hours. Eight people died and four others were reportedly missing in Xinyi. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)

With electricity cut off, farmlands inundated and rivers with water levels exceeding the warning line, days of heavy rain have left many southern provinces in chaos.

Xinyi in Guangdong province is the most seriously affected, with a death toll of eight people and four others still missing. School children are stranded, cars deluged and people commuting to work with rolled up pants. Although the flood has been gradually receding, many streets are still covered with mud and sand.

Local authorities, along with some related departments, have started to clean up the streets.

“We, along with teachers, students and some residents, are trying to clear the mud away from the roads to restore traffic,” said Chen Wei, deputy director of Xinyi Commission of Housing & Urban-Rural Dev't.

Elsewhere in Xinyi, continuous heavy downpours have also left many rivers overflowing. The Jinjiang river surged during the heavy rainfall and burst its banks. The Shangwen reservoir, which is only three kilometers away from downtown Xinyi, was under alert with water 1.5 meters higher than its warning line. Flood releasing work has been ongoing since Friday night.

“The water level is declining by 5 centimeters per hour. It will take another 16 hours to make the reservoir return to normal, so by Sunday morning,” said Yan Yingwu, deputy director of Management Office of Shangwen reservoir.

Up to now, the rainfall has caused an economic loss of 1 billion yuan, (U.S.$160 million) in Guangdong province alone. 

About 560,000 people have been affected and about 42,000 people had to leave their homes. 

Water and power supplies, as well as telecommunications are gradually recovering in the affected areas. But local authorities still warn of possible geological disasters in mountainous areas.

An excavator works to clear silts in Xinyi, south China's Guangdong Province, May 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)

Excavators work to clear silts in Xinyi, south China's Guangdong Province, May 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)

Citizens clear silts in Xinyi, south China's Guangdong Province, May 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)