BEIJING: Torrential Rains has left at least 30 people died in Beijing and forced more than 80,000 to leave their homes as flooding water swept through roads, villages and the city’s suburbs, state media said Tuesday.
Emergency staff have worked around the clock to save the caught, with heartbreaking scenes of people led to safety through waist-deep water.
The worst affected areas include Miyun and Fangshan, where many families have lost everything in just a matter of hours.
Intense rainfall has beaten parts of northern China this week, including the capital and provinces Hebei, Jilin and Shandong.
From midnight Monday, “The latest round of heavy rainfall has left 30 people died in Beijing,” said state news agency Xinhua, quoting the city’s municipal flood control headquarters.
Over 80,000 people have been evacuated in the Chinese capital alone, the local state marketing market said Beijing Daily on social media.
It added that “continuous extremely severe rainfall caused major disasters”.
The death toll was highest in Miyun, a suburban area northeast of the city center, says it.
Also severely affected was the Huairou district in the northern part of the city and Fangshan in southwestern, reported state media.
Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said.
“Be aware of weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary,” the outlets said.
In Miyun, a resident said Liu was followed by the fact that he saw flooding water sweeping vehicles outside his apartment block early Monday morning.
AFP journalists who saw a crawler lift people and a dog to safety as rescuers waded through water up to their knees.
Nearby, in the city of Mujiayu, then AFP journalists a reservoir release a stream of water.
Power lines were swept away by muddy currents, while military vehicles and ambulances plowed through flooded streets.
Firefighters also saved 48 people caught in an elderly care center, CCTV reported.
‘All-out effort’
Chinese President Xi Jinping called on authorities late Monday to prepare for worst-case scenarios and accelerate the relocation of residents in flooded areas.
Beijing Daily said that local officials had “made a complete effort to seek and save missing persons … and did everything to reduce injuries”.
In Hebei Province, which surrounds the capital, a landslide in a village near the town of Chengde four people, where eight were still missing, reported the state’s TV company CCTV on Monday.
Natural disasters are common throughout China, especially in the summer, when some regions suffer heavy rain, while others endure burning heat.
China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases that scientists say to drive climate change and make extreme weather more frequently and intensely.
But it is also a global power value-value center that aims to make its massive economy carbon neutral by 2060.
Flash flooding in Eastern Shandong Provins killed two people, leaving 10 missed this month.
A landslide on a highway in Sichuan province also killed five people this month after it swept several cars down a hillside.
