Typhoon Ewiniar, formed in the northwestern Pacific, has brought heavy rainstorms and strong winds to many areas in southern China including Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hainan provinces. China's Central Meteorological Observatory continues to announce a blue warning for the rainstorm.
Just in Guangdong province alone as of June 9, more than 73,000 people were forced to relocate and more than 140 outbound and inbound flights had been canceled in Baiyun International Airport located in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. Houses collapsed and landslides caused by pouring rain have killed five residents in the city of Yunfu. More than 3,000 emergency shelters have been opened and over 8,000 residents were resettled. According to the provincial insurance regulatory authorities as of June 11, typhoon Ewiniar had caused nearly 300 million yuan (about 47 million U.S. dollars) of damage in Guangdong excluding Shenzhen, the second largest city in the province.
Surveillance video installed in the city of Jiangmen, Guangdong showed flooded streets.
Flamingos floating in the flood at Guangzhou Zoo. (screen-shot/Guangzhou Zoo)
However against all odds, with the close cooperation among police, firefighters, departments of health and meteorology as well as volunteers, no candidate in Guangdong was absent in the annually held collage entrance exams on account of the extreme weather, reported by Nan Fang Daily.
Every year, students nationwide take Gaokao - collage entrance exams on June 7 and 8, which are known for being tough and life-changing. This year in Guangdong, around 733,000 students participated in exams, the second largest number in the country. 502 examination points were set up and the number of relevant staff was nearly 100,000. It was raining dogs and cats on those two days, parts of the cities had already been flooded.
Policemen sending a candidate home to get her admission ticket for exams. (Photo/ Guangzhou Daily)
In the city of Huizhou, local police driving emergency unit vehicles to send candidates to examination points. A netizen named Maggie-wb commented that "Gaokao is really like a battlefield now." (Photos/ Guangzhou Daily)
Besides Guangdong, some villages in Taihe county, Jiangxi province have been flooded, the rescue is still proceeding as of now.
Firefighter carrying senior lady waiting for speed boat. (screen-shot/ Chinanews.com)
Firefighter transferring senior man on his shoulder to safety zone. (screen-shot/ Chinanews.com)
Southern China are frequently hit by typhoons. Mawar, 16th typhoon of 2017, landed in Guangdong, bringing gales of 20 meters per second at its eye. 2,200 fishing boats had returned to the harbor while more than 15,000 people were relocated to safety. Typhoon Hato, 13th typhoon formed in the northwest Pacific of 2017, caused downpours hitting areas of Guangdong and Fujian provinces.
Haima, 22nd typhoon of 2016, severely impacted the economy of southern China in sectors including aquaculture, agriculture, tourism and forestry. In Fujian, the economic impact could reach 37 million yuan, with damage to about 200 hectares of crops. In Guangdong, around 3,400 houses and some 189,600 hectares of crops had been damaged with losses calculated at 4.18 billion yuan (about $617 million). Hainan, the island province, suffered an economic loss of 4.56 billion yuan (about $712 million) from Typhoon Sarika, 21st typhoon of the year.
But disasters don't just bring damages, but also touching stories.
Chen Yongguo, manager of a water supply company in Hainan, trying to fix pipes damaged by a typhoon in 2017. He said, "I need to ensure water supply for residents." (Photo/ Hinews.cn)
Jiao Lei, policeman of Anhui Armed Police Corps stayed in the flood for 19 hours to rescue villagers in 2016. (Photo/ People.cn)
More natural disasters are likely to happen with climate change. Heroes are needed in our time, and indeed they are not too far away.
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