Typhoon Saudel forces mass evacuations in southeast China

Torrential rain brought by Typhoon Saudel battered southeastern China last week, unleashing record‑breaking precipitation across Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces. In Fujian’s coastal city of Putian, 416.5 mm of rain fell within a 24‑hour span from Thursday to Friday, while nearby villages recorded totals exceeding 500 mm. Authorities in Fujian evacuated nearly 600,000 residents from flood‑prone zones, and an additional 128,000 people across 53 counties in Jiangxi were affected, including 9,000 who were forced to leave their homes. The deluge triggered widespread flooding, landslips and infrastructure damage, trapping more than 2,500 teachers and students in a school compound in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, after flash floods inundated low‑lying areas.

Rescue operations intensified as the storm’s impact deepened. In Putian, the collapse of a river embankment on Thursday required the evacuation of at least 1,260 individuals and destroyed roughly 100 homes. A landslip in Suichuan County, Jiangxi, on Saturday claimed three lives and left nine people missing. Emergency services continue to assess damage and provide assistance to the displaced, while local governments coordinate relief efforts to restore affected communities and mitigate further risk.