Kaiping and Enping, under the administration of Jiangmen, Guangdong province, have issued notices to suspend classes starting Thursday, when heavy and torrential rains battered the county-level cities.

Meteorological and hydrological authorities forecast that heavy to torrential rain, with extreme regional downpours, will continue to hit Kaiping on Thursday, threatening the lives and assets of residents, according to a statement released by the Kaiping city government.

Affected by floodwaters in the upper reaches of the Tanjiang River, the Changsha hydrological station is expected to reach a peak water level of around 2.4 meters at about 4 pm on Thursday, exceeding the warning level by 0.4 meters, putting the whole city under severe flood prevention pressure, the statement said.

To protect people's lives and property, the city's flood control headquarters has issued a notice ordering all schools and nurseries to suspend classes starting Thursday morning.

All construction sites across the city have also been asked to suspend operations, as have all staff engaged in high-altitude and outdoor work.

The flood prevention situation in Enping remains severe, according to a notice issued by the city government on Thursday. The local flood control headquarters has implemented city-wide class, work, and public transportation suspensions.

According to meteorological monitoring, heavy rainfall has swept across cities and counties in central and western Guangdong since Monday night.

Influenced by the southwest monsoon, extreme torrential rain has hit Yangchun of Yangjiang city, Kaping and Enping of Jiangmen, Doumen of Zhuhai, and nearby areas since Wednesday.

Hekou town in Yangchun recorded a 12-hour cumulative rainfall of 732.5 millimeters and 962.5 millimeters in total.

Naji town of Enping saw a cumulative rainfall of 642.1 millimeters and the province's highest hourly rainfall of 117.2 millimeters, while Doumen registered a cumulative rainfall of 555.3 millimeters.

According to Guangdong flood control authorities, the entire province is on alert to implement flood prevention measures.

A total of 5,533 residents have been evacuated from high-risk areas across the province. All Ro-Ro passenger ships across the Qiongzhou Strait suspended service between 4:30 pm and 6 pm on Wednesday. In total, 119 passenger ferry routes involving 280 vessels were suspended province-wide as of Thursday noon.