The month of April, 2023, was something of a record breaker for natural disasters in China. Some 7.94 million people were affected nationwide, while there has also been considerably more sandstorm activity compared to the same period in previous years.
China’s Emergency Management Ministry, together with other relevant authorities, recently concluded their study into the national-natural-disaster situation in April, 2023, breaking down the recent surge in extreme weather.
Such comprised mainly wind and hail, drought, low temperatures and freezing conditions, together with floods, geological disasters, sandstorms, earthquakes and fires.
In other words, pretty much all mother nature has to throw at us.
The results were seven deaths, 10,000 people resettled and over 500 collapsed buildings, with in excess of an additional 2,600 buildings severely damaged and 68,000 more sustaining general damage.
Some 731,200 hectares of crops were also affected, bringing direct-economic losses from natural disasters in China last month to ¥5.44 billion.
Looking across the country, wind and hail hit Hunan and Guizhou provinces in particular, with more pronounced sandstorm activity too. The phenomena together affected 1.069 million people nationwide, resulting in 5 deaths and losses of ¥1.6 billion. The sandstorms of 18-21 April reached a severe level, causing crop damage in north and northwest China.
That part of the country also suffered from low temperatures and snow-related disasters, as China as a whole went through an unseasonably cold spell from 21-24 April. Some 1.327 million people in 11 provinces and regions, including Shanxi, Gansu and Shaanxi, were affected. As The Paper reports, those particular disasters had a direct-economic loss of ¥1.36 billion.
Then there was the southwest, which endured numerous floods and other geological disasters during four periods of heavy rainfall last month. Across the country, some 32 rivers experienced excessive flooding, affecting over half a million people in Hunan, Hubei and Fujian provinces in particular. That cost us ¥620 million.
In Yunnan, Sichuan and other places, the problem wasn’t too much water; it was not enough of the stuff. The droughts therein impacted some 3 million hectares of crops and put 87,000 people in need of daily assistance. Nationwide, some 56 forest fires broke out in April, among which eight were grassland fires in Inner Mongolia.
On the earthquake front, China experienced three last month with a magnitude of 4 or higher, with the biggest being the 4.6-magnitude quake which struck Baicheng in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on 7 April. On the plus side, that particular natural disaster brought about precisely zero economic losses, largely on account of the area being remote and undeveloped.
