Rainstorms leave 1 dead, 34 missing
Print Edition
AT least one person was killed and 34 were reported missing after torrential rain pounded northern China yesterday.
Heavy downpours struck Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing, causing all major rivers to breach their banks and damaging 11 dams and two hydropower stations, Xinhua news agency reported.
Nearly 68,000 residents were relocated as the provincial land resources bureau warned of flooding, landslides and mountain torrents.
Weather authorities in the province issued their highest alert for rainstorms, Xinhua added.
Beijing was also hit by heavy rain, with some roads submerged in water more than 2 meters deep.
The capital’s meteorological authority issued an orange alert, the second-highest in China’s four-tier warning system, as traffic was disrupted and flights canceled.
Between 1am and 2pm yesterday, average precipitation in the capital reached 129.4mm, with the maximum of 334mm recorded in suburban Fangshan District.
By 2pm, 13 waterlogged road sections in downtown Beijing had been temporarily closed to traffic. Beijing Drainage Group Co, the company contracted to manage the city’s drains, said its workers were rushing to disperse the water.
A total of 164 bus routes had been affected as of 2:30pm, with services suspended or canceled on 14 of them, according to the Beijing Public Transportation Group.
By 8pm, 237 flights had been canceled at Beijing International Airport. Train services were also disrupted and a handful of subway stations shut.
Some high-speed rail services were delayed, the rail authority said.
Pictures on social media showed cars making their way slowly through flooded streets in several parts of the city.
There were no reports of any casualties.
Beijing’s Flood Control Office issued a statement yesterday afternoon, urging people to limit their travel, take public transport and stagger their commutes.
The National Meteorological Center, meanwhile, maintained its orange alert for rainstorms across the country.
Torrential rain forecast in parts of Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Yunnan is expected to last into this afternoon with rainfall of up to 240mm in some places.
The center advised people living in affected areas to prepare for possible floods, landslides and mud and rock flows, and people living in mountainous areas were urged to move to safer ground.
Tianjin, which neighbors Beijing, was also battered by torrential rain yesterday.
As of 2:30pm, the cumulative precipitation in the city’s downtown area reached 201.35mm. Road traffic, air travel and public transport were all affected, according to the municipal government.
In northeast China’s Liaoning Province, authorities ordered all schools and kindergartens to stay closed today.
Already this summer, large parts of central and eastern China have been inundated with rain, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people.
Torrential rain has wreaked havoc in southern and central China too, causing floods in several major cities, including Wuhan in Hubei Province.
Northern China is normally arid but flooding is not rare during the summer monsoon season.
Beijing was lashed by the worst rains to hit the capital for more than 60 years in the summer of 2012. Around 80 people were killed.
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