On Wednesday, September 16, residents in Chuanbu Township of China’s Guangdong Province woke up to gushing waters reaching as high as two storys. Radio Free Asia reports that officials there had deliberately flooded the town after the local dam rose to dangerous levels in the wake of Typhoon Koppu.

Officials had given no warning before they allowed to town to be flooded.

According to Radio Free Asia, five thousand students and staff at the Chuanbu Middle School were trapped for an entire day. One local official says much of the farmland has been destroyed, and hundreds of homes have collapsed.

There are unconfirmed reports that two teachers drowned.

Enraged by the blatant disregard for their lives and property, dozens of Chuanbu residents stormed local Communist Party offices. They want the local authorities to compensate them their losses--and to sack the officials responsible.