CHINA:AFTER A year of snowstorms, mining disasters, train crashes and earthquakes, now comes the deluge. Huge swathes of southern China have been hit by the worst storms and floods in decades and authorities have warned of a "Black June", evacuating millions of people.
The rising level of the Yellow River, China's second longest river at 5,500km, in the north could cause havoc for millions in the part of the country known as "the cradle of Chinese civilisation".
So far 169 people have died in the rising waters, and the flooding has caused mayhem in the prosperous, low-lying Pearl River delta, which includes many of the factories that have driven China's economic growth miracle. Sections of major cities in the region, including the provincial capital Guangzhou, have been submerged.
"We must remain clear-headed and not underestimate the serious nature of the current flood and disaster situation," vice-premier Hui Liangyu warned on the website of the state flood prevention headquarters.
The entire length of the Pearl river has been flooded, while some of its tributaries were experiencing the biggest floods ever recorded.
"We have to limit the loss of life and property to the lowest extent possible. We cannot underestimate the arduous nature of fighting the flooding and warding off disaster," he said.
He ordered the immediate evacuation of people in danger areas and the strengthening of river dykes and reservoirs as water levels of more than 40 rivers exceeded warning levels.
In Guangxi province, a million people have been displaced and local media have shown pictures of residents rowing through the streets of its towns.
The crisis is set to worsen as typhoon season kicks in in the sub-tropical parts of southern China.
China is a vast country, incredibly diverse geographically, and natural disasters are a regular occurrence, while there are also hundreds of industrial accidents related to the country's startling economic rise, such as the rash of coal mining disasters in recent years.
However, 2008, the year when China crowns its remarkable period of opening up and economic growth by staging the Olympic Games, has been a truly biblical year, and it's still only June.
The year began with snowstorms in the same area of southern China, which badly hit the country's infrastructure.
Meanwhile the southwest is still struggling to cope with the effects of the May 12th earthquake centred on southwest Sichuan province that killed more than 70,000 people.
Run-off in the Xijiang and Beijiang rivers was much higher than normal at their junction in Foshan city, with more rain expected upstream, the Xinhua news agency reported.
According to flood headquarters, waters exceeded warning levels by 6.8 metres on the Xijiang river in Guangxi's Wuzhou city, where three rivers meet before flowing down into the Pearl River delta. The heavy rain is expected to keep up all this week.
There is heavy rain in the earthquake zone too, complicating relief efforts. In Wenchuan County, the quake epicentre, troops were rushing to move close to 20,000 people threatened by landslides as heavy rains approached, Xinhua reported. More than 52,000 had already moved out of threatened areas.
In Hunan Province, just north of Guangdong, the crest of the flood passed the provincial capital of Changsha, despite two monitoring stations recording the highest water level in history.
The flooding is also expected to have serious economic consequences in lost production, ruined crops and destruction of infrastructure.
The floods cut seven national highways and 68 provincial ones in Guangdong, causing economic losses of 600 million yuan (€55 million), Xinhua reported.