Almost 73,000 people in the South East of China have been evacuated due to heavy flooding. In the city of Guangzhou public life has been disrupted and the water is flowing trough the streets. The heavy showers came with typhoon Ewiniar, which hit the South East coast of China. At least 5 people in the province have died. A number of people are said to have been electrocuted in flooded streets.
Arie van Helden and Maarten van Fraassen during the latest edition of the Asia Fruit Logistica
Arie van Helden of Global Fresh International from Strijen arrived in Guangzhou on Friday. He speaks to the NOS: "I was picked up from the station by a business partner and taken to the hotel. This is a distance of a few kilometres and it took us a total of three hours. A lot of roads were barely accessible, some not at all. They were full of water."
His colleague Maarten says that people are used to the rainy period, but that yesterday's rainfall was unprecedented. "I just had a meeting with a customer who has been living here for fifteen years and she said she had never seen anything like it. She showed me a photo of the parking garage by her apartment and the cars were half full of water."
The two Dutchmen export vegetables and fruit to China. Normally they meet customers at a large wholesale market, but this wasn't the case this time, says Van Fraassen. "That market is normally open 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, but at the moment it is only partially open. Thankfully some customers can still come to our hotel, which is slightly higher up. Other parts of the city have been hit harder.
Bron: NOS