Knee-deep in fierce weather, nation pulls together

Guangxi fighting back

Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was already struggling to recover from another disaster before Bavi.

Days of torrential rain had triggered catastrophic flooding across the autonomous region, leaving 39 people dead and nine others missing, according to local authorities.

Among the hardest-hit areas was Zhenlong township in Hengzhou, where nearly 8,000 residents were cut off from the outside world after mountain roads collapsed, reservoirs overflowed and power and communications were knocked out.

For six days and five nights, rescue teams fought to reconnect what local residents described as an "isolated island".

Firefighters, soldiers, local officials and volunteers trekked through landslides carrying satellite phones, food and medicine. Helicopters later air-dropped emergency supplies to villages that remained inaccessible by road.

Excavators gradually cleared more than 200 landslides along a 17.5-km mountain road before finally reopening the township's main access road on Friday afternoon, Guangxi Daily reported.

"When responding to disasters like this, every meter of road matters," one rescue commander told Guangxi Daily, describing the final few hundred meters as the most difficult section, where half of the roadbed had been washed away and unstable hillsides continued to collapse.

For nearly a week, rescue workers operated more than 50 pieces of heavy machinery around the clock to reopen what many residents called their "lifeline".

Even before the road reopened, local officials walked for hours each day to deliver food and medicine to isolated mountain villages, while motorcycle volunteers navigated muddy tracks that larger vehicles could not reach. "Where trucks can't go, we'll go," one volunteer rider told Guangxi Daily. "If villagers can't get supplies, we'll deliver them."

Yet for many residents, reconnecting the road marked only the beginning of recovery.

Across Hengzhou, known as the "World Jasmine Capital", floodwater struck just as the region entered the busiest months of its annual jasmine harvest. The city supplies more than 80 percent of China's jasmine flowers and jasmine tea, supporting the livelihoods of some 340,000 people.

"We can finally harvest again," grower Huang said after returning to fields that had emerged above the floodwater. "As long as we can harvest, we'll still have income."

For others, the damage was far more severe. "The flood was so fierce that it washed away most of the jasmine fields in our village," grower Su Jinmei said.

"Most of our fields will have to be replanted. Even if we plant again later this year, the earliest we'll have income is next year."

Lei Wancheng, another grower, said the disaster came after months of poor weather had already reduced earnings. "Now we've lost the harvest altogether. We'll have to find other ways to make a living," he said.

Song Qifeng, a jasmine tea trader with nearly three decades in the business, said she had never witnessed flooding on such a scale. Even during the flood, she continued buying flowers harvested from higher ground, despite knowing many would have to be discarded later.

"The farmers had already picked them," she said. "We couldn't just leave them with nowhere to go."

For many families, rebuilding homes, restoring roads and replanting jasmine fields will take months, if not longer.

Grower Su Jinmei anticipates the recovery will take some time.

Much of her jasmine fields will have to be replanted after the cleanup. Furniture and household appliances damaged in the flood will also need to be replaced, she said.

"But we're safe," she said. "As long as people are safe, we can slowly start again."