A 30-year-old man surnamed Xie swam through waist‑deep and higher floodwaters for hours on July 6, 2026, to reach his parents’ flooded village in Qinzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, after losing contact with them amid widespread floods that have killed 39 people and affected nearly 400,000 residents, according to the South China Morning Post. The deluge, driven by torrential rains and several dam collapses, knocked out power and mobile signals across large areas, leaving many communities cut off.
Xie, who lives in town with two siblings while his parents remain in a village about 10 kilometres away, said his mother called the night before to say his 63‑year‑old father had gone to secure harvested rice and had not returned. By then houses in the village were submerged up to the first floor and communications were unreliable. “I could not sleep all night,” Xie told reporters, worried his father might have been swept away.
To reach the village, Xie and a friend bought two new truck tyres to use as flotation. Xie swam for about three hours in total, including roughly one hour to cover the final kilometre to his parents’ house. They found his father trapped on the upper floor; the man smiled when he saw his son but scolded him for risking his life, saying, “You’re risking your life for some rice.”
Xie led his father along a narrow path behind the house to a second family home higher on a mountain that had remained dry. His mother wept and rebuked him when she saw him drenched. After ensuring his parents were safe, Xie returned to the city later that day — a journey that required another two hours of swimming.
The incident underscores the human cost and chaos caused by the floods in Guangxi, where rapid water level rises, infrastructure damage and communication failures have complicated rescue and relief efforts. Local authorities and emergency teams are continuing evacuations and assessments in the hardest‑hit areas as recovery operations proceed.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/man-swims-for-3-hours-through-floodwaters-to-check-on-his-parents-11790435#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-07-19 07:01:00
