At least 25 dead in Henan’s heaviest rains in 1,000 years
Print Edition
At least 25 people have died in China’s flood-stricken central province of Henan, a dozen of them in a subway line in its capital that was drenched by what weather officials called the heaviest rains for 1,000 years.
About 100,000 people have been evacuated in Zhengzhou, the capital, where rail and road transport have been disrupted, while dams and reservoirs have swelled to warning levels and thousands of troops launched a rescue effort in the province.
City authorities said more than 500 people were pulled to safety from the flooded subway, as social media images showed train commuters immersed in chest-deep waters in the dark and one station reduced to a large brown pool.
Seven people are missing in the province, officials said yesterday. Over 1.24 million people have been affected and about 164,710 people relocated to safe places.
Media said the dead included four residents of the city of Gongyi, located on the banks of the Yellow River like Zhengzhou, following the widespread collapse of homes and structures because of the rains.
More rain is forecast across Henan for the next three days, and the People’s Liberation Army has sent more than 5,700 soldiers and personnel to help with search and rescue.
From Saturday to Tuesday, 617.1mm of rain fell in Zhengzhou, almost the equivalent of its annual average of 640.8 mm. The three days of rain matched a level seen only “once in a thousand years,” meteorologists said.
Meteorological researchers said the havoc was the result of extreme weather conditions. The terrain on Henan’s Taihang and Funiu mountains lifted up the easterly air, causing heavy rainfall to persist in the mountainous western and northwestern areas of Henan.
Ministry of Emergency Management raised the emergency response for flood control to Level II, the second-highest level in the response system, while Henan initiated its highest-level emergency response to flooding.
A rescue team of 1,800 firefighters has been deployed to the flood-hit region from seven neighboring provinces, together with boats, pumping vehicles and flood rescue kits.
Many train services have been suspended across Henan, a major logistics hub with a population of about 100 million. Highways have also been closed and flights delayed or canceled.
Media said yesterday that food and water supplies had run out for hundreds of passengers stranded on a train that had stopped just beyond the city limits of Zhengzhou two days earlier.
Roads were severely flooded in a dozen cities of the province. Dozens of reservoirs and dams breached danger levels.
Local authorities said the rainfall had caused a 20-meter breach in the Yihetan dam in the city of Luoyang, west of Zhengzhou, and that the dam “could collapse at any time.” Early yesterday, the People’s Liberation Army said blasting operations had been carried out at the dam and troops had “successfully opened a new flood diversion opening.”
A raft of Chinese companies, insurers and a state-backed bank said they had offered donations and emergency aid to local governments in Henan amounting to 1.935 billion yuan (US$299 million).
The Chinese Red Cross Foundation has donated 5,000 disaster-relief family packages to Henan, each of which contains materials that could sustain a family of five for a week.
People caught in the floods looked for shelter in libraries, cinemas and even museums.
After the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou, the city’s largest with more than 7,000 beds, lost all power, officials raced to find transport for about 600 critically ill patients.
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