Tropical depression hits southern China two weeks after Typhoon Wutip

BEIJING (Reuters) -A tropical depression made landfall on China's island province of Hainan early on Thursday, the country's National Meteorological Centre said, bringing more rain to a region still reeling from Typhoon Wutip two weeks ago.

The tropical depression is expected to move from the city of Wenchang across the island's northeast tip, before heading back out into the South China Sea and making a second landfall in China's southern Guangdong province, state broadcaster CCTV said, gradually weakening along the way.

Extreme storms and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for Chinese officials, as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions of people and cause billions of dollars in economic losses.

The storm will again test the flood defences of the densely populated Guangdong province, as well as Guangxi and Hunan further inland.

Five people died and hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated when Wutip roared through the region from June 13 to 15, dumping record rains and damaging roads and cropland.

(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Jamie Freed)