Typhoon Maysak Dam Collapse Puts 170,000 at Risk in Guangxi. Rescue Teams Cut Off.

What Collapsed and When

At approximately 11:00 a.m. on Monday, July 6, two sections of the dam at Liulan Reservoir in Hengzhou City gave way, according to South China Morning Post. The breach opened a 50-meter gap in the structure, sending a massive torrent of water downstream through communities already saturated from days of rain.

Liulan is the largest medium-sized reservoir in the Hengzhou area. NTD News reported it holds more than 93 million cubic meters of water and irrigates nearly 25,000 acres of farmland. That water is now moving.

Hengzhou is part of the broader Nanning region, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The Scope on the Ground

NTD News put the population under imminent threat at 170,000, citing local Hengzhou authorities as of July 6. The Guardian reported that about 55,000 people in Nanning alone were already affected by flooding, with approximately 48,000 evacuated from the city. The BBC reported a wider provincial evacuation figure of 480,000 across Guangxi.

These numbers are not contradictory. They measure different things: Nanning city, Guangxi broadly, and the specific danger zone around Liulan Reservoir.

The BBC and The Guardian both confirmed at least two deaths in Nanning. The Guardian separately reported five additional deaths from unrelated heavy rains in northern China — two in a flash flood in Inner Mongolia and three in Fushun, Liaoning province.

Villages Cut Off, Residents on Rooftops

A resident from Dengxu Village in the town of Yunbiao told NTD News: "The flooding hit so fast; people simply couldn't get out. The water was too deep and rushing too fast. Everyone is trapped on the second floors of their houses. We are running out of food and supplies, but the roads are cut off so nothing can get in."

The same resident said local internet and power were completely down and that he had lost all contact with family. "The reality is far worse than what the videos show," he said.

Images verified by multiple outlets show streets turned into fast-moving rivers, cars submerged or swept away, and residents stranded on rooftops.

The Typhoon's Path

Typhoon Maysak made landfall in Hainan province on Friday, July 4 — the first tropical cyclone to reach the Chinese mainland this year, according to The Guardian. It made a second landfall in Vietnam on Sunday before pushing into Guangxi. In the Vietnamese border city of Mong Cai, the storm knocked down trees and tore metal roofs from buildings.

As Maysak weakened and moved inland, it continued dumping the moisture it absorbed crossing the South China Sea, according to meteorologists cited by The Guardian. The Nanning Municipal Emergency Management Committee stated the region had seen continuous "extreme torrential rain" since Thursday, July 3.

Highest Alert, Rescue Teams Deployed

Guangxi's flood control emergency response has been raised to its highest level, Level I. Local authorities established rescue-and-evacuation teams and warned residents to stay away from rivers and low-lying areas, according to South China Morning Post.

The Guardian reported that waters were overflowing or breaking through barriers at three separate reservoirs in Nanning, confirmed by city deputy mayor Wei Jiang on Monday. In the city of Guigang, about 170 miles east of Nanning, floodwaters turned a major road into a lake and submerged vehicles. The water level at the Guigang hydrological station had risen to 42 meters by 12:30 p.m. Monday, per China's Ministry of Water Resources.

The Strongest Counterpoint Worth Hearing

China's government has significantly expanded its flood monitoring, early-warning systems, and dam reinforcement infrastructure over the past two decades following major disasters like the 1998 Yangtze floods. Defenders of Beijing's emergency management apparatus would note that the Level I alert was issued quickly, mass evacuations were ordered before peak flooding hit, and rescue teams were deployed despite road closures. The scale of the evacuation — hundreds of thousands of people moved in a short window — represents real institutional capacity.

A resident's account to NTD News describes villages completely unreachable, with no power, no communications, and people running out of food. Whatever the system's design, the gap between official response capability and on-the-ground reality in Dengxu Village as of July 6 was not closed.

What Comes Next

Meteorological authorities warn the storm system's residual circulation will continue producing heavy rainfall across Guangxi through Tuesday, July 7. NTD News reported the system is then projected to push north into Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangsu provinces — heavily populated territory that will be watching water levels closely.

A second storm adds a separate layer of risk. The Guardian reported that Super Typhoon Bavi was tracking across the Pacific toward Taiwan as of Monday, with the U.S. National Weather Service recording winds up to 180 mph near Guam, Tinian, Saipan, and Rota. Chinese weather authorities, citing state news agency Xinhua, warned that Bavi could bring strong winds and heavy rain to eastern China.

The unresolved question, as of July 7, is whether rescue teams can reach the isolated villages around Liulan Reservoir before Guangxi receives the next round of rainfall that forecasters are already warning about.