Typhoon triggers floods and rare tornadoes in China, leaving 17 dead and hundreds injured

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - BEIJING — The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China has risen to at least 17, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported.

Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed at least 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, where “severe convective weather” hit cities, while tornadoes were reported elsewhere late Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.

Xinhua also reported that 4,800 houses had been damaged and 22 more collapsed.

“This episode of severe convective weather was characterised by its sudden onset and intense, short-duration winds,” it added.

In the southern region of Guangxi, heavy rains and severe flooding from Typhoon Maysak killed at least four people, with at least 50,000 people evacuated, while eight people were still missing.

The typhoon has inundated the city of Nanning and surrounding villages, with residents calling for rescue from their rooftops.

Officials in Nanning, Guangxi’s capital, raised the flood control emergency response to the highest level after torrential rain breached dams.

"The floods happened so rapidly, the water just came so fast. The villagers didn't have time to take food with them when they were running away," a woman named Zhou told the BBC.

Zhou's family is among tens of thousands of people in Guangxi displaced from their homes since Typhoon Maysak swept the region over the weekend, causing rivers to swell and dam walls to break.

It has also triggered thunderstorms, and even tornadoes, in the central province of Hubei — hundreds of kilometers away.

At least 17 people have died, hundreds more have been injured and tens of thousands have been evacuated, according to state media.

The devastation from days of extreme weather has prompted President Xi Jinping to order "all out" rescue and relief operations.

Xi had underscored the importance of "treating the injured, resettling affected residents, and carrying out disaster prevention and relief work effectively".

Typhoons that cause widespread flooding are common in China at this time of the year and Maysak is the first to make landfall in the country for the 2026 season.

Another storm, Super Typhoon Bavi, is churning across the Pacific, on course to hit China's eastern coast later this week, according to forecasts.

Authorities in Nanning have warned that "extremely heavy rain" could hamper rescue efforts.

Extreme weather, which experts link to climate change, have increasingly threatened China's residents and economy, especially its trillion-dollar agriculture sector.

Residents from Guangxi province said thousands remain trapped on rooftops, some in mountain villages, because of the floods.

The official count estimates 60,000 people have been evacuated and at least 90,000 in total are affected by the deluge.

State media has been airing footage of rescuers at work, wearing life vests and helmets and riding inflatable boats.

Meanwhile in Hubei province, at least two tornadoes have formed, wreaking havoc across cities.

Meteorologists said that it was caused by cold air from the north colliding with warm air brought in by Typhoon Maysak in the south.

Tornadoes are rare in the region, with the last one recorded in 2021 according to state media.

Videos of strong winds whipping through the cities of Ezhou and Huanggang have been circulating on Chinese social media.

One clip, apparently filmed from a restaurant, showed outdoor tables and chairs tossed around by the tornado and electrical sparks flying in the air, as diners screamed in terror.

Local media reported that a man in Huanggang was "sucked" out of his high-rise apartment and plunged 12 storys to the ground, when the strong winds shattered his windows and blew the man along with his furniture out of the apartment. He is reportedly now in intensive care in the hospital.

A student in Huanggang told the BBC that he had thought it was "just an ordinary thunderstorm", until he saw "things started flying through the air outside" the dormitory window.

"A lot of students were cut by flying glass," he said. "It wasn't until everything had finally stopped that I realized I had just lived through a disaster."

Some parts of northern China have also seen extreme weather in recent days.

On Saturday, a flash flood in Tongliao city in Inner Mongolia left two cattle farmers dead while record rainfall in Fushun city left three people dead, state media reported.

In Fushun, average rainfall between 01:00 and 07:00 local time "shattered historical records".

As residents in areas affected by extreme weather wait for aid and rescue, they have been desperate to find out about their loved ones.

At least 22 people were killed in China in May after heavy rains lashed its central and southern regions, with some places “hit by record-breaking rainfall”, state media reported.