Guangdong Province begins geological hazard investigation

Guangdong Province in South China has started a province-wide comprehensive investigation of geological hazards in its highways, railways and waterways to eliminate hidden safety dangers, the province's transport authority said. 

Top priorities have been given to strengthening the inspection and monitoring of the high-risk areas and highway sections where downpours hit frequently in the previous days, riversides, soft foundation sections, continuous steep downhill mountain roads, bridges and tunnels, sharp turns, steep and high slopes, according to a statement released by Guangdong provincial department of transport on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the statement urged relevant departments and responsible officials and persons to introduce effective and concrete measures to prevent and cope with possible geological hazards in the days to come when downpours continued to hit the southern province.

Besides, the department has sent seven working groups to various parts of the province to guide and supervise the implementation of the work plan.

The statement was issued after 48 persons were killed and another 30 were injured in a highway section collapse accident that occurred in the province's Meizhou city in the early morning Wednesday.

In Zhuhai, local traffic police have unilaterally closed off a highway section after they have found a landslide safety risk in the highway section that links Zhuhai to Jiangmen, located in the Guangdong-HongKong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The time for resuming traffic on the highway section will be notified separately, traffic police said.

In Zhongshan city where a red rainstorm warning signal was issued on Saturday, authorities urged locals to reduce going out although three of the four crocodiles that escaped from a farm have been retrieved, and the rest escaped one is being captured.

Affected by heavy rainfall, multiple towns in Zhongshan have been reported flooded since Saturday. As of Saturday night, the city's fire control department which had received 211 flood and waterlogging reports, has sent 14 teams of 249 firefighters to help handle the flooding disaster.

Meanwhile, 42 fire trucks and 19 boats were sent to help fight against the flood disaster and evacuate a total of 462 local residents.

Guangdong provincial government has ordered relevant cities and government departments to introduce effective measures to prevent and handle possible geological hazards caused by torrential rainfalls, including the collapse of highways and dikes along coastal, river and reservoir areas; flooding; mountain torrents; mudflows and landslides, in the days to come.