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Beijing's heaviest rain in 60 years leaves 37 dead
Source: Agencies |
July 23, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Beijing's heaviest rainstorm in six decades killed at least 37 people, flooded streets and stranded 80,000 people at the main airport.
The storm, which began on Saturday afternoon and continued late into the night, flooded major roads and sent torrents of water tumbling down steps into underpasses.
The Beijing city government said last night that of the people who died, 25 drowned, six were crushed when their homes collapsed, five were electrocuted and one was struck by lightning.
Twenty-two of the bodies have been identified, it said.
More than 500 flights were cancelled at Beijing's Capital International Airport, The Beijing News said.
The subway system was largely unaffected by the floods but was swamped with people desperate to get home and unable to use cars, buses or taxis.
The city received about 170 millimeters of rain on average, but one township in Fangshan District to Beijing's west was hit by 460mm, officials said.
About 1.9 million people were affected by the downpour which also incurred nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) in economic losses, according to Pan Anjun, deputy chief of the Beijing flood control headquarters.
Multiple damage
As of last night, about 66,000 residents had been relocated, including 20,990 in Fangshan alone, Pan said.
The rains caused multiple damage to roads and bridges, including 31 road cave-ins. More than 1,200 houses or buildings had seen leakages and 736 houses were flooded, Pan said.
The Beijing city government said it was working to get the metropolis back on its feet, but warned people to prepare for further bad weather.
Many residents post dramatic pictures of the storm online. Some said the city should have been better prepared, especially as the government had issued a severe storm warning the day before.
The clouds had at least one silver lining. The official pollution index, which rated unhealthy before the storm hit, registered "excellent" yesterday.
On Saturday night, the rain knocked down trees in the capital and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water.
Train services between Beijing and Guangzhou were suspended because of the deluge, the flood control headquarters said.
More than 12,000 people worked to drain 1 million cubic meters of water from the streets and most was cleared by 6am yesterday.
A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary school students and nine teachers at a military training site. They were all evacuated yesterday.
Elsewhere, landslides triggered by heavy rain on Friday and Saturday killed eight people in the southwestern Sichuan Province. Another 17 people were missing in Shaanxi Province, where 131mm of rainfall was reported from Friday night to Saturday afternoon.
The government yesterday warned of more storms over the following 24 hours for China's northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan Province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast.
An orange rainstorm alert, the second highest, was issued.
The storm, which began on Saturday afternoon and continued late into the night, flooded major roads and sent torrents of water tumbling down steps into underpasses.
The Beijing city government said last night that of the people who died, 25 drowned, six were crushed when their homes collapsed, five were electrocuted and one was struck by lightning.
Twenty-two of the bodies have been identified, it said.
More than 500 flights were cancelled at Beijing's Capital International Airport, The Beijing News said.
The subway system was largely unaffected by the floods but was swamped with people desperate to get home and unable to use cars, buses or taxis.
The city received about 170 millimeters of rain on average, but one township in Fangshan District to Beijing's west was hit by 460mm, officials said.
About 1.9 million people were affected by the downpour which also incurred nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) in economic losses, according to Pan Anjun, deputy chief of the Beijing flood control headquarters.
Multiple damage
As of last night, about 66,000 residents had been relocated, including 20,990 in Fangshan alone, Pan said.
The rains caused multiple damage to roads and bridges, including 31 road cave-ins. More than 1,200 houses or buildings had seen leakages and 736 houses were flooded, Pan said.
The Beijing city government said it was working to get the metropolis back on its feet, but warned people to prepare for further bad weather.
Many residents post dramatic pictures of the storm online. Some said the city should have been better prepared, especially as the government had issued a severe storm warning the day before.
The clouds had at least one silver lining. The official pollution index, which rated unhealthy before the storm hit, registered "excellent" yesterday.
On Saturday night, the rain knocked down trees in the capital and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water.
Train services between Beijing and Guangzhou were suspended because of the deluge, the flood control headquarters said.
More than 12,000 people worked to drain 1 million cubic meters of water from the streets and most was cleared by 6am yesterday.
A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary school students and nine teachers at a military training site. They were all evacuated yesterday.
Elsewhere, landslides triggered by heavy rain on Friday and Saturday killed eight people in the southwestern Sichuan Province. Another 17 people were missing in Shaanxi Province, where 131mm of rainfall was reported from Friday night to Saturday afternoon.
The government yesterday warned of more storms over the following 24 hours for China's northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan Province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast.
An orange rainstorm alert, the second highest, was issued.
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