Watch: Worst Rain in Centuries Cripples Chinese Province

Record rainfall in Central China has triggered flooding, dozens of deaths, and the forced relocations of hundreds of thousands of people (watch above).

Thirty-three people have perished in the chaos, including twelve when a subway tunnel flooded.

“The water reached my chest,” a survivor wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.”

A year’s worth of rainfall has fallen in just three days in Henan Province and 3 million residents have been impacted by the extreme weather. Some experts estimate that it’s the largest rainfall in a 1,000 years. From The New York Times:

Power was knocked out in dozens of villages, and water still swamped broad areas across the province. People turned to social media to spread news and direct emergency rescuers to those in need. A post from Xinxiang showed a video of flooded streets, with a man pleading for help, saying most of the people trapped in buildings without power near him were older.

On an arduous drive through Henan Province on Thursday, many roads and bridges were flooded or blocked by mudflows. Zhengzhou remained largely cut off; railroads and highways were still closed, and airline traffic suspended.

The Wall Street Journal explains that China’s rainy season has been exacerbated by climate change:

China regularly experiences summer flooding, and environmental experts say urbanization and climate change have made the impact from extreme weather events more devastating. Last year, unusually powerful rains in central and southern China triggered the worst flooding seen in decades and caused tens of billions of dollars worth of damage.

The area impacted is famous for producing the majority of the world’s iPhones.