China's Nanning Declares Top Flood Emergency After Typhoon Maysak Swells Rivers

Nanning , the capital of China's southwestern Guangxi region , has raised its flood control response to the highest level after rivers and reservoirs swelled following the passage of Typhoon Maysak , according to Chinese state media. Authorities in the city, home to nearly 9 million people, elevated the emergency response from Level III to Level I due to what officials described as extremely heavy rain, China Central Television reported.

A breach has already been reported at a medium sized reservoir in Nanning's Hengzhou district, prompting the evacuation of residents in the surrounding area, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency , citing local authorities. Maysak, now a slower moving tropical storm, no longer carries the sustained winds of over 50 miles per hour that battered Vietnam and China's southern island province of Hainan over the weekend. However, meteorologists warn that as the storm moves further inland and weakens, it will release the substantial volume of moisture it gathered while crossing the South China Sea, raising the risk of severe flooding across the region.

Maysak made its first landfall in Hainan on Friday, marking the first tropical cyclone to reach the Chinese mainland this year. It made a second landfall in Vietnam on Sunday, a country that shares a border with Guangxi, where it brought down trees and tore metal roofing from buildings in the border town of Mong Cai before continuing into Chinese territory.

Chinese meteorologists have forecast continued heavy rainfall across Guangxi , Guizhou , Hunan and other nearby provinces in the coming days. These three provinces alone are home to more than 150 million people, a population larger than that of Russia, underlining the scale of the population currently at risk from continued flooding.

Analysts note that weather related disruptions of this kind can wipe out tens of billions of dollars in commercial activity annually, as flooding disrupts industrial operations, damages infrastructure and destroys crops across affected regions. Adding to the concern, the region remains on alert for Super Typhoon Bavi , which is currently making its way across the Pacific Ocean toward Taiwan, raising the possibility of further extreme weather in the near term.

Authorities in Nanning and surrounding provinces are continuing evacuation and monitoring efforts as the situation develops.