More people go missing and thousands are evacuated as China is hit by more floods
Rain continued to pelt northeastern China in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri on Saturday, as authorities reported more fatalities and missing people while evacuating thousands more.
Six people died and four went missing in the city of Shulan in Jilin province, which has seen five straight days of rainfall, according to state media.
Over 18,900 people were evacuated from the city of more than 700,000, according to the local disaster relief agency. State news agency China News Service showed images of waterlogged streets around homes and factories. The average precipitation in the city had reached 111.7 mm by Friday afternoon.
China is struggling with record-breaking rainfall in some areas while others suffer scorching summer heat and drought that threatens crops. The heavy rains – remnants of Typhoon Doksuri – have battered northern China since late July, disrupting the lives of millions. Flooding near Beijing and in neighboring Hebei province this week killed at least 22 people.
In northeastern Heilongjiang province, which is known as China’s “great northern granary,” rain inundated farms and flooded streets, leading to the evacuation of thousands.
In the city of Shangzhi, heavy rainfall turned roads into rivers and inundated thousands of households.
National emergency management authorities said 25 rivers across Heilongjiang threatened to burst their banks, while disaster relief groups have been dispatched to the province.
In Heilongjiang’s capital of Harbin, more than 53,000 people had to be evacuated as multiple reservoirs and rivers exceeded safety levels while some 41,600 hectares (103,000 acres) of crops were damaged.
In the city of Yushu in Jilin province, about 120 kilometers south of Harbin, flooding forced the evacuation of around 19,000 people.
Meanwhile, in Hebei province around Beijing, which saw some of the region’s worst flooding in the past few weeks, authorities issued fresh alerts for rainstorms on Saturday.
Floodwaters in Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, started to recede Saturday, state media reported, allowing some of the 125,000 evacuated residents to return to their homes.
The death toll in the 11 million-strong city of Baoding reached 10 while another 18 people are still missing, local authorities said Saturday.
Floods damaged roads and washed away bridges in the city’s Yesanpo Scenic Area, a national park known for its gorges and mountains.
Meanwhile, an earthquake in eastern China before dawn yesterday knocked down houses and injured at least 21 people, according to state media, but no deaths were reported.
The magnitude 5.5 quake occurred near the city of Dezhou, about 300 kilometers south of Beijing, the Chinese capital, at 2:33 a.m., according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.4.
The quake caused 126 homes to collapse and 21 people were injured, government broadcaster China Central Television and other news outlets reported.
TV broadcasters showed Dezhou residents who ran outdoors after the quake sitting on sidewalks in the predawn darkness. Video on social media showed bricks that had fallen from cracked walls. MDT/AP
