Shocking Devastation! Floods, Landslides, Mudslides Hit China, Many Villages Gone, Millions Homeless

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:02]Recently, Shan County, Changdu, Punan faced an extremely rare, record-breaking downpour. The heaviest rainfall in a single day reached 492.5 mm. Almost the total annual rainfall of some northern provinces. It far exceeded the standard for extreme heavy rain, pouring down like someone had overturned a giant bucket. In a short time, flash floods and mudslides swept through the area. Rivers like Shesh surged overnight by 9 mters, leaving much of the county suddenly submerged and in chaos. On May 24th, flash floods hit Huing Shan town in Shuing County due to continuous heavy rain. Mr. Yang, who narrowly escaped, shared his harrowing experience. He said the water reached nearly the ceiling of the second floor, and when the flood first arrived, it was already up to their necks. Now that the water has receded, the house is badly damaged.

[00:00:58]Furniture is soaked and ruined, making it uninhabitable.

[00:01:06]>> The flood has gone down now. Let's take a look at our house. That white line shows how high the water reached before.

[00:01:13]This is where we escaped from. Now, walking inside, you can see how bad it is. The mud is deep. This room is completely wrecked. The kitchen is in chaos. The stove collapsed and water's dripping everywhere. I went ahead to find a way out. My wife followed me.

[00:01:30]She's taller than my mother, so she held my mother's hand as they made their way through. The water was above my mother's head. Once I finally opened the door, I pushed my mother to safety first. Then helped my wife out and finally went out myself. The water was still deep outside. Now this window is gone. The whole floor is dripping. The entire floor is destroyed. The bathroom can't be open. The mud on the ground is about 20 cm deep. The second floor was completely flooded. I think my foot got cut on some glass. It's bleeding. This is our living room. Total disaster.

[00:02:04]Thankfully, my cat survived. The pigs in the pen were all swept away. My mother cried seeing an empty pen. Our home was back to square one overnight. Jingah village in Sherman County became one of the hardest hit villages. Located in Nambbe town is the most remote and highest village in Chando City with an average elevation of 1,200 m. Where the flood went, it wiped out almost all signs of life. The river, usually just 10 m wide, expanded to over 120 m. The riverbed rose by more than 10 m. Yellow mud and rubble cover the ground, and the air smelled foul. Houses and farmland were destroyed by rain and flash floods.

[00:02:45]Roads were cut off. Communication was down. and the village temporarily lost contact with the outside world. A villager told Chinese media. The water rushed over the ground in seconds. A couple trying to retrieve belongings were swept away. They held on to a tree to survive, but several villagers were engulfed by the flood, including a 3-year-old child. Video show multiple landslides in Jin Xiao village. Houses built along the river were submerged or destroyed, leaving parts of the village along the river damaged.

[00:03:20]A harmonious family brings everything to prosperity. But now the family is gone.

[00:03:25]This flood was extremely severe. The water came so fast that in just a half an hour, the level rose from below the bridge to over the bridge, more than 4 m high. When we looked around, almost all the first floors of the home on both sides were destroyed. And in some cases, even the second floors were completely flooded. Jing Xiao villages main industries are tea and tobacco with over 200 acres of tea plantations and 50 acres of tobacco fields. A villager walked to Jing Xiao to assess the damage.

[00:04:00]>> Look at this scene. There used to be several houses on this hillside, but now they're all gone. The hardest hit area, Jingah village in Nambbe Town. Look at this place. These houses are completely washed away. The villagers tea gardens their land all destroyed. See up here I'm standing. There were originally four houses. Now only two remain. To my left was a school and now the school is gone too. Seeing this is truly heartbreaking.

[00:04:31]>> It's really shocking. There used to be a house here, but after the landslide, all that's left is a staircase. Just the staircase. The rest is completely gone.

[00:04:41]Several villagers spontaneously formed a search and rescue team and went to Jin Xiao village to look for their family members.

[00:04:51]Wow, the scene ahead is a total mess.

[00:04:53]Truly shocking. I don't even know where to start digging. It's heartbreaking to see. You can see the vehicles. They're basically buried in mud. Trash is everywhere piled high.

[00:05:04]These vehicles are completely damaged and the homes are all destroyed causing huge losses to the villagers daily lives and livelihoods. Pingpai news, a village official in Jin Xiao village said on May 22nd, "The flood has almost completely submerged the village. Jing Xiao village might no longer exist."

[00:05:24]Most young people from the village work elsewhere, leaving a registered population of nearly a thousand, but only about 260 remain full-time, mostly seniors over 60. Mr. Min said he works in Sherman County, while his 68-year-old father lives alone in Gingua Village.

[00:05:42]Surveillance footage shows that around 1:00 a.m. on May 18th, water had already entered the house and his father was trying to mop it up.

[00:05:50]They tried to reach him to warn him to move to higher ground but couldn't get through. Soon the power and internet went out and a camera stopped working.

[00:05:59]Like Mr. Min's father, Ms. Lee lost contact with her grandfather, grandmother, and grand uncle during the flood and her grandmother was confirmed dead on May 19th. On the afternoon of May 23rd, both Ms. Lee and Mr. Min said they had not received any updates on their missing relatives. Mr. Wong, a villager from Jin Jahu, said he usually works in Guandong. His family in the village included his 78-year-old mother, 83-year-old father, and 80-year-old uncle. My home is in the Honga area of Jing Xiao in a valley, he said. During the heavy rain, that whole area was wiped out by the flood and mudslides.

[00:06:38]All three elderly relatives were swept away. He added that on the evening of May 18th, someone sent him a video showing recovered bodies. He saw someone who looked a little like his mother.

[00:06:49]Around 9:00 a.m. on May 19th, he returned to confirm her death. Besides his two family members, neighbors in the village also went missing. According to state media, as of 7:00 p.m. on May 22nd, the heavy rainfall had caused seven deaths and 14 people missing in Shuen County. Meanwhile, in Minguang City, Ani Province, authorities declared an emergency after a torrential rain submerged half the city.

[00:07:17]Look at how high the water has risen.

[00:07:19]All of Minguang City is flooded. Look at what I'm wearing. Waterproof pants. The water is already up to my waist.

[00:07:26]>> In the early hours of May 24th, Minguan City in Anoi Province was hit by an extremely intense short-term downpour.

[00:07:34]Footage from the scene shows a shocking disaster. At the intersection of Minso Road, Eluan Road, water rose above car tires. Several cars stalled, sitting alone in murky flood waters with much of their body submerged. Flash floods and mudslides struck villages, turning roads into dead ends. In Shishan, footage shows vehicles instantly swept away while the city of Anqing was overwhelmed by urban flooding with cars floating like boats. The heavy rain poured down violently. In just a few hours, multiple main streets and low-lying neighborhoods became waterlogged. Streets were submerged. Cars were underwater and pedestrians had to weigh through the water. These scenes once again highlighted the long-standing weaknesses in China's urban drainage systems. In Minguan's old town, water in low-lying streets reached waist height. Residents had to roll up their pans to carry shoes to walk through. Electric scooters struggled through the flood, splashing water everywhere. Some community garages were flooded, submerging half the parking spaces, and homes were filled with water, leaving furniture soaked.

[00:08:38]Flooding after rain is not unusual in Minguan. It reflects a common issue in Chinese cities. Whether in the rainy south or the drier north, heavy downpours repeatedly turn cities into temporary seas. The root problem lies in outdated drainage networks, low construction standards, and aging infrastructure. Old city pipelines are too small to handle sudden heavy rainfall. In new districts, underground drainage lags behind high-rise construction. Imperfect alignment between drainage systems and urban development combined with increasingly hardened surfaces reduces water absorption and increases runoff, heightening flood risks. Meanwhile, Chongqing's Yong Chuan district also faced extreme sudden rainfall from the night of May 23rd into the early hours of May 24th. Te Mountain and Bamboo Sea Street became the rainfall center with up to 296.6 6 mm falling between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Such intense rain triggered flash floods and geological hazards almost instantly. Video shows a river at Yongchan district running muddy, carrying floating debris. On May 24th, a local resident posted, "Early this morning, I finished playing Maong and rode my motorcycle home. The rain was like bullets, so heavy and dense.

[00:09:51]Flash floods also hit the T- Mountain Bamboo Scenic area in Yong.

[00:09:57]This is my grandmother's house. This is my house. They were all flattened by the flood. Now my mother, uncle, and grandmother are missing and haven't been found.

[00:10:08]>> Look, this house. This house. They were all flattened. Several people inside are still missing.

[00:10:15]The house was completely destroyed by the water. Everyone is gone. We can't find them.

[00:10:22]>> The house is gone, too. A family of nine disappeared. We have no idea where the flood carried them.

[00:10:27]>> After sudden heavy rain hit Yong Chan and Chongqing, local students went live showing streets where many cars were submerged. During the live stream, the network lagged noticeably. Students also reported that a local school had lost power and the scene was chaotic. Wong Xiaoong, a student at Chongqing University of Science and Technologies Yong Chong campus, told China News Weekly that the storm came with lightning and thunder. The glass in the dorms was rattling non-stop. Some first folded rooms were flooded. Many cars around the school were underwater. Some so deep only the roofs were visible.

[00:11:02]Nearby farmland was submerged 1 or 2 meters. And the water in the Tia River rose 2 to 3 m in an instant. Though these disasters appeared scattered, they highlight China's vulnerability to extreme weather. Short intense rainfall quickly flows down slopes racing through steep valleys with loose mud, stones, and even large boulders forming flash floods or mudslides. Those can destroy homes, break roads, bury farmland, and cut off entire villages from the outside world. Despite years of promoting the rural revitalization strategy, village infrastructure remains underdeveloped.

[00:11:37]In practice, these projects often focus on appearances, building squares, arches, and publicity campaigns while ignoring what villagers truly need: drainage channels, slope protection, and safe shelters. Public safety has long been overlooked and the risks have accumulated at the grassroots level.

[00:11:55]Prioritizing political achievements over villagers lives leaves rural residents unprotected when disasters strike. Since May, extreme weather has been frequent across China with heavy rain, flash floods, and tornadoes affecting regions from south to north. On May 23rd, Mingue County in Hyongjang province was hit by a once- ina century tornado. It caused severe damage. Roofs ripped off homes.

[00:12:19]Trees snapped in half, leaving destruction everywhere. A man who witnessed a tornado filmed the scene.

[00:12:28]>> Look at this. It's a tornado. Can you see it? Wow. This thing is terrifying.

[00:12:32]Less than a mile away from me. It rose right before my eyes from top to bottom.

[00:12:37]The video shows dark skies with heavy clouds overhead. From the clouds, a massive column of wind reaches all the way to the ground with a roar of the wind audible across the scene. This massive tornado caused shocking destruction in the affected villages.

[00:12:51]Many steel roof homes were ripped open, large trees were snapped in half, and power poles were knocked down, leaving scenes of chaos everywhere. A witness named Louu, said that every 10 homes in the village, nine had their metal roofs blown off. Nearly all the trees were broken. Another villager, Mr. Lee, in his 60s, said it was the first time he had ever experienced such a terrifying tornado. He's still shaking thinking about it. The whole village lost power and water and repairs are underway. One household suffered the worst. Everything in the home was swept away by the tornado, leaving only a single brick bed. Villagers standing outside could only watch in despair. The Mingue County Meteorological Bureau in Hyongjan reported that the tornado reached a maximum wind level of 15. Two townships were hit hardest by the high winds. For decades, floods, mudslides, and tornadoes have repeatedly struck China, highlighting the urgent need to fundamentally rebuild a disaster prevention system. On April 28th, 2026, the political bureau of the CPC Central Committee held its 25th collective study session to discuss natural disasters, sparking broad debate about the actual effectiveness of China's disaster management system. German-based water management expert Wangi Lu published a blunt analysis on May 17 in the Yi Bao.

[00:14:09]He argued that the so-called collective studies and important instructions from China's top leadership are not a sign of proactive action but more like a form of highlevel passivity. One pointed out that since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has issued important instructions during every major disaster but has never been the first to visit the affected areas. Whether it was the Zenzo floods, the Beijing Tenjin Hub water disasters, the Hunan dyke breaks, or Beijing's heavy rains, the top leadership almost always stayed at the stage of listening to reports and issuing directives. The irony is that she repeatedly claims China's disaster prevention capabilities are worldleading. Yet in reality, China with over half the world's reservoirs and vast areas of high standard farmlands continues to see increasingly severe losses from floods. Wong cited the 2023 Beijing Tangji Huay floods as an example. Although that flood was much smaller than the 1963 Hiho River flood, the damage was far greater. The cause was not purely natural. It was partly man-made. To protect the Shong An area in Bayong Dien, Beijing forcibly redirected flood waters to Danzo and Bao, triggering massive disaster.

[00:15:24]Despite China having more than half the world's large reservoirs and extensive high standard farmland, flood losses keep rising.