Cadres suspended as floods kill 130
Print Edition
FOUR government officials in north China’s Hebei Province have been suspended from their posts for dereliction of duty in their response to deadly floods over the past week that killed at least 130 people and left more than 110 others missing.
Torrential rains and floods lashed the north last week, driving over 300,000 people from their homes and leaving hundreds of thousands more trapped as waters rose.
The four officials include the head of a development zone in the city of Xingtai, the chief engineer of a transport bureau in Shijiazhuang and two Communist Party officials of Xingtai, according to a decision made by the Hebei Provincial Party Committee. They will face accountability investigations with the possibility of further punishment.
The move comes as China has been fighting massive flooding this summer that has also threatened embankments along rivers in central China, with authorities mobilizing troops and heavy equipment to fill the gaps. Already, 576 people have been recorded as dead or missing nationwide in the first half of the year.
President Xi Jinping last week warned the country to be prepared for more hardship to come and said officials found negligent in their duties would be severely punished.
In Hebei, the officials were being suspended “for being ineffective in flood prevention and rescue and relief work,” the government statement said.
Xingtai was among the province’s worst-hit areas, with floods there killing 25 people and leaving 13 others missing.
Xingtai’s Mayor Dong Xiaoyu apologized on Saturday for inadequate responses to the storms. He said the government had underestimated the intensity of the rain and the risk of flooding, and that local officials erred in failing to confirm and report casualties in a timely and accurate fashion.
“I am deeply sorry for failing to protect people’s lives and properties, no matter how serious the natural disaster is,” Dong said. “On behalf of the city Party committee and government, I pay deepest condolences to the victims and their relatives, and apologize to the public.”
He promised a thorough investigation and to hold negligent officials responsible.
The Xingtai village of Daxian was swamped by a flash flood on Wednesday as residents were asleep. Eight people, including three children, were killed and another was missing in the flood, according to the Xingtai government.
But the tragedy did not surface until Friday, when accounts began surfacing on Chinese social media of angry villagers blocking roads, accusing the local authorities of failing to notify them in time for evacuation when an upstream reservoir discharged the floodwaters.
Villagers complained that officials had failed to give them sufficient warning before the flood hit.
“The village chief informed us about the flood situation around 2am that day, but the floodwaters had almost arrived by that time,” a villager surnamed Zhang said yesterday. “We had no time to make preparations.”
“I heard people yelling ‘flood’ at about 2:30am. I woke up my wife and children and rushed out of door immediately. In no time the water level was above my waist,” villager Zhang Erqiang said.
“My wife and I panicked and we climbed on a tree, and stayed there for several hours until rescuers arrived in the morning,” Zhang told Xinhua news agency. “But our daughter and son were washed away and their bodies were just found.”
Authorities blamed extraordinary rainfall and a failure of a river levee near the village for the sudden water surge.
Local media reported that the river channel is particularly narrow near the village of Daxian and has been blocked by pipes from a heating utility as well as mud.
Xingtai Vice Mayor Qiu Wenshuang, said on Saturday that the flood was sudden and the village was already flooded when officials arrived there to evacuate residents on Wednesday morning.
Flooding is not uncommon during the summer season in northern China, but rains have been unusually heavy across the country this summer.
Heavy downpours have already wreaked havoc in central and southern China, flooding several major cities and causing over 200 deaths.
The death toll from floods in Anyang city, Henan Province, has risen by six to 18, with nine others missing, local authorities said yesterday.
Last week’s rain in Henan brought floods and disrupted traffic, power and telecommunications, Xinhua said.
Anyang was among the worst-hit where 192,700 people were evacuated and 54,600 hectares of crops were damaged. More than 35,000 houses collapsed.
Vice Premier Wang Yang presided over a national meeting on flood control and disaster relief in Beijing on Saturday, urging governments to put safety of the people first and strengthen flood control measures.
Over 59,000 armed police have joined flood rescue work, helping to relocate more than 88,000 people across the country. The Chinese Armed Police Force said 16 CAPF corps, seven divisions and other troops joined the work, using 590 inflatable motor launches.
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