Deadly tornadoes and storms kill 11 in Hubei province

Severe thunderstorms, strong winds and at least two tornadoes swept across eastern Hubei province on Monday evening, killing 11 people and leaving one person missing after a violent outbreak that hit Huangshi, Huanggang, Ezhou and Xianning. Videos showed debris hurled through the air as the storm moved through Ezhou and Huanggang, where the damage was worst.

The toll rose through the night as local authorities revised earlier figures that had put the death count at eight with one person missing. Xinhua said rescue operations were underway after the city was struck by an EF2 tornado, while state media reported gusts reached level 13 on the extended Beaufort scale, about 149 kph, or 93 mph. Chinese state media said the wider system affected about 14,600 people, injured 331 and forced 246 residents to relocate.

Huangzhou district in Huanggang reported four deaths, one missing person and 173 people hospitalized with injuries. The district also evacuated 269 residents to hotels or relatives’ homes, a sign of how quickly families had to move out of damaged neighborhoods. In Ezhou, officials said the city’s main urban district, Echeng, experienced a rare tornado and later reported five deaths and 388 damaged homes in an initial assessment.

Emergency, fire and health departments deployed thousands of personnel for rescue and relief work, but the storm underscored how unusual this kind of damage is for the province. Hubei meteorologist Wang Xiaoling said tornadoes are very rare there. Local reporting linked the outbreak to warm, moist air, a trough associated with the remnants of Typhoon Maysak and strong wind shear, a combination that can turn severe weather into a fast-moving disaster.

The storm’s reach across four cities and the speed at which the casualty count changed showed the pressure on local warning and response systems as they dealt with a threat more familiar to the U.S. Midwest than to central China. In Ezhou and Huanggang, the immediate response centered on evacuations, hospital admissions and emergency deployments, while damaged homes and overturned debris showed the limits of infrastructure not designed for rare tornadoes.