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Over the past few days, Beijing has seen the heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago.
The torrential rains and massive floods have left 11 dead in Beijing and 9 dead in Hebei province.
Authorities are mobilizing an all-out effort to safeguard the people from the impact of disasters.
One of the country's most famous rice cultivation areas is threatened with a huge grain loss due to the heavy rain and flooding brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri.
More than 40,000 people were relocated, and vast areas of paddy fields remained soaked by water in the city of Wuchang, Heilongjiang province, a major commodity grain base and home of the famous Wuchang rice.
The impact on the crops in Wuchang was not yet known, China News Service reported on Saturday.
From midnight Wednesday to 8 am Friday, Wuchang received the heaviest rainfall in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, which administers Wuchang, according to Harbin Meteorological Bureau data released on Friday.
Wuchang has the largest area of arable land in Harbin. It is a major center of rice cultivation in China, with a yield of 700,000 metric tons last year, China News Service reported.
Wuchang rice is famous for its unique flavor and texture. It is grown in the fertile black soil of Heilongjiang province. The province's large temperature difference between day and night help produce rice that is high in starch and low in moisture, resulting in a firm, chewy texture.
Farmers are currently concerned about the limited time left to drain the water in the paddy fields.
"This is the time when rice is least tolerant to rain and cannot withstand being soaked in water. A reduction in the rice crop yield is inevitable. We only hope that the rain stops soon, and the floodwaters quickly recede, so we can minimize the damage to the greatest extent," a farmer told China News Service.
"Currently, the local rice is in the heading and flowering stage, and has poor tolerance to water immersion. My paddy field was flooded yesterday afternoon. If the water can recede within two days, the loss is still manageable. But if it's inundated by water for more than three days, there will be no rice harvested in those fields," a local farmer surnamed Wang told Tide News of Zhejiang province about her 20 hectares of paddy fields on Friday.
Regarding the crop damage in Wuchang, a local government official told China News Service that they do not have specific data at the moment and no statistics had been gathered so far. "We are all fighting against the flood in rural areas," the official said.
In hard-hit Shulan, 9 killed, including city's vice-mayor
After wreaking havoc in parts of Hebei province and Beijing, remnants of Typhoon Doksuri continued on their path, causing damage and endangering lives in the country's northeastern region over the past few days.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Water Resources updated the flood response level in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region and northeast China's Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces.
The emergency response was raised to Level 3 of China's four-tier flood-control emergency response system as heavy rainfall since last Wednesday has triggered excessive flooding in areas.
Shulan, a city in Jilin province, is one of the hardest-hit places in Northeast China. As of Sunday, nine people had been killed and one remained missing there — Shulan's vice-mayor Luo Xudong is among the dead.
Continuous heavy rainfall began in the city the night of Aug 1, and as of 3 pm Friday the precipitation had reached 111.7 millimeters. The rain has caused floods, bridge collapses and road damage.
Jin Wenhua, a woman in her 60s in Shulan's town of Jinma, said she had never in her life seen such heavy rains and that it was very distressing. She and her husband are now at a temporary relocation site.
Liu Mengda, deputy head of Jinma, and who is in charge of two temporary sites for relocated villagers, said they started moving villagers at 11 pm Friday and by 3 am Saturday, 214 had been safely relocated.
"We've prepared drinking water, food, basic supplies and medical supplies to meet their needs," he said. "I have seven colleagues with me who can sleep two or three hours these days. I haven't slept well for three days."
By Saturday, 18,916 people had been evacuated in Shulan, and 21 temporary relocation facilities were established. Rescue forces have restored the service of 85 electricity and 26 telecommunication facilities in the city.
To better aid the areas, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Emergency Management allocated an additional funding of 350 million yuan ($48.8 million) on Saturday to local authorities of Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin. Previously, the central government had allocated 170 million yuan for these places.
The funds are being used for emergency relief, relocating residents, disaster inspection and restoration of collapsed and damaged houses, according to the ministries.
The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the emergency management ministry have conducted teleconferences with Tianjin, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Hebei to arrange the anti-flood and emergency relief work since Saturday.
These areas have been urged to coordinate relief forces to rescue people trapped or missing in order to minimize the casualties. They have been required to restore communications and electricity facilities to secure the rescue operation.
Local authorities have been urged to closely monitor the rain and water situations, to scientifically use flood-control projects and prevent emergencies at embankments and reservoirs.
On Friday night, the headquarters, together with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration allocated emergency supplies worth 7.14 million yuan. It has also dispatched 10 teams to flooded areas to help them deal with the emergencies.
On Saturday, the declared flooding emergency remained at Level 2 of the four-level system in Tianjin and Hebei, and level 3 in Beijing, Jilin and Heilongjiang.
Thirty railway workers have been rewarded after they helped trapped passengers who were on a train stranded by floodwaters in Beijing's outskirts for nearly four days.
According to China Railway Lanzhou Group, each staff member on train K1178 received 10,000 yuan ($1,395) as a reward.
The train, which departed from Yinchuan, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, and was bound for Beijing, had 841 passengers and 30 staff members onboard. It left Yinchuan on July 29 and was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at about noon the next day.
However, it got stuck in western Beijing's flooded Mentougou district from July 30 until Aug 2. It had made an emergency stop at Yanhecheng Station in Mentougou at 12:57 pm on July 30. As the station is on higher ground and not as susceptible to flooding, railway authorities decided to keep the passengers and staff on the train until the flooding receded.
"When passengers woke up the next morning, some of them became pretty anxious after seeing the train was still stopped at the station. We crew members divided into 15 teams to comfort passengers one by one," said crew member Ni Peng. On Aug 2, the line to Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, reopened for service. Passengers took a commuter train and arrived at Zhangjiakou in the afternoon on Aug 2. They were either picked up by their families at stations along the way or took another train to Beijing.
Li Sisi, a train staff member, received a banner from the train's passengers on Friday.
"A passenger, who is a veteran, volunteered to help with supplies and comforting other passengers," she said.
Li Guoqiang, the train's cook, said: "The induction cooker got to work at about 6 am and it had to stop at 3 pm to keep it from overheating. We had to find a way to cool it down, using a fan or wiping towel. After making porridge, we had to use the cooker to boil some water. It was the first time I ever saw a cooker stopping work because it had been on for too long."
Sponge cities play vital role amid climate change impact
Torrential rainfall and subsequent flooding in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have focused renewed attention on China's determination to strengthen protection against natural disasters.
By implementing the sponge city concept and comprehensive upgrades to infrastructure, the nation is striving to mitigate the impact of heavy rainfall and safeguard people's well-being.
The sponge city initiative, launched to adapt to climate change, aims to reduce urban flooding by constructing facilities that help absorb and capture rainwater for future use.
Under the influence of Typhoon Doksuri, heavy rain began to engulf the region on July 29. Flooding had killed 11 people in Beijing and nine in Hebei province by Tuesday, according to local flood control and drought relief headquarters.
Zhu Dingzhen, former chief officer at the China Meteorological Administration's Public Meteorological Service Center, said, "Many regions in China still rely on infrastructure that adheres to outdated disaster defense standards."
"If the climate keeps changing at the current rate, losses from such disasters will be considerably higher than in previous decades, due to current population numbers and the scale of economic development," Zhu said.
Some regions still rely on outdated infrastructure, which may not withstand the impact of climate change, especially in traditionally dry areas that are experiencing increased rainfall that threatens to overwhelm these regions, Zhu said.
"It is crucial for China to plan and upgrade its infrastructure to adapt to future changes, as the nation faces a wide range of natural disasters due to its diverse climate and geographical features," he added.
For example, northwestern regions could face the prospect of roads being washed away and river channels collapsing from as little as 20 millimeters of rainfall. The increased rainfall could saturate soil on the Loess Plateau, where many villages are situated on loess soil, and there is a heightened risk of secondary disasters, Zhu added.
Extreme event
The recent heavy rainfall in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was labeled a "historically extreme event" by the National Meteorological Center.
The downpours surpassed others of a serious nature that occurred in the region in 1996, 2012 and 2016, with the center saying that it rained continuously for 83 hours in Beijing from July 29 to Tuesday.
During this period, the accumulated rainfall was double or even triple the average for the time of year. In one village — Liangjiazhuang in Xingtai, Hebei — rainfall over two days exceeded 1.3 meters, more than twice the average annual precipitation for the area, the center said.
Beijing's weather service said rainfall of 744.8 mm was recorded at Wangjiayuan Reservoir in the capital's Changping district during this period, the largest amount recorded in the city for 140 years.
From 8 am on July 29 to 5 pm on Tuesday, the volume of rainfall in Beijing reached about 4.3 billion cubic meters, Beijing News reported.
Zhang Chi, professor of management and economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said extreme weather conditions caused by climate change continue to pose significant threats to vulnerable populations, and adaptation measures are urgently needed.
The 2022 China report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: leveraging climate actions for healthy aging, said that from 2016 to 2020, the average exposure to extreme rainfall and drought per person increased by 71.6 percent.
Zhang, one of the report's first authors, said: "Vulnerable groups are suffering more from climate change. For example, older people are at greater risk than young people from such extreme weather, but they are less willing to move home.
"The recent flooding not only devastated farmers' crops but also harmed their health. Without immediate support and adaptation strategies to mitigate the impact, this already vulnerable group faces a vicious cycle of adversity," she said.
The devastating impact of recent torrential rain has again highlighted the importance of China's ongoing efforts to strengthen its defenses against natural disasters.
Guidelines issued
The nation aims to build sponge cities to mitigate the impact of torrential rain. Such cities absorb, store, filter and purify rainwater. When needed, they release and use stored water.
In 2014, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the Pilot Technical Guidelines for Sponge City Construction, designating Beijing among the pilot cities for this concept. The guidelines aim to create cities with the ability to adapt to environmental changes and effectively respond to natural disasters, functioning in a way similar to sponges.
Government departments, including urban planning, drainage, transportation and landscaping, are involved in guiding the process.
The guideline states that to build such cities, efforts should be made to prevent urban areas sprawling rapidly, and adequate areas of green space, along with footpaths made from permeable materials should be provided.
Other efforts should include connecting water systems such as rivers, lakes, wetlands, ponds and canals with urban rainwater pipe networks and excess rainwater discharge systems, the guideline states.
The ministry said that over the years problems have arisen, with some cities misunderstanding sponge city construction. These problems could hamper efforts to bolster resilience against disasters, according to a statement released by the ministry last year.
There are problems in building water filtration systems regardless of geological conditions, drawing drainage zoning boundaries based solely on administrative divisions, and adding drainage hurriedly after the completion of design plans for buildings, roads and gardens.
She Nian, head of the Smart Sponge City Planning and Construction Research Institute at the Tsinghua Innovation Center in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, told Southern Weekly on Wednesday that the carrying capacity of northern sponge cities is lower than that of southern cities.
"Northern cities need to improve awareness of how sponge cities tackle urban flooding, as in the past, northern regions have not experienced frequent rainfall or heavy storms like southern areas," She said.
During construction of sponge cities, attention should be paid to building green belts, rather than relying solely on traditional rainwater drainage systems, he was quoted as saying.
In 2021, the UN Office for Project Services, the UN Environment Programme and the University of Oxford co-published a report titled Infrastructure for Climate Action.
The report emphasizes the importance of treating infrastructure as a key area for addressing climate change — urging governments to reassess how to deliver and manage infrastructure to ensure it is suitable for a resilient future.
In recent years, cities worldwide have sought ways to enhance their resilience to climate change. However, implementing such measures often comes at a high financial cost.
One example is the case of New Orleans in the United States, and the city's suburbs located south of Lake Pontchartrain.
Following the destructive Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the federal government invested $14.5 billion on installing levees, pumps, seawalls, floodgates and drainage systems to carry massive amount of water away from houses and into wetlands.
This infrastructure has since protected the area from damage caused by storms, the Associated Press reported in 2021.
At 3 pm on Wednesday afternoon, Yang Shuai lost contact with his parents, who had phoned him five minutes earlier to tell him they had arrived at home safe, even though floodwater reached up to their knees.
The loss of communication panicked their 30-year-old son, who quickly drove the 20 kilometers from the downtown area of Zhuozhou city, Hebei province, to the village where his parents live.
He feared the worst, as floodwater was surging after days of heavy rainfall and a river in the area had burst its banks.
Located about 1 km from the Baigou River, a tributary of the Haihe River, Zhongdaitun village is just one of many severely affected by floodwater in Zhuozhou that has engulfed homes and farmland.
Yang's family lost more than 100 pigs and an old house that collapsed after being flooded. As of Saturday, two other houses nearby were still partly immersed in floodwater.
"My parents, who looked after the house and the pigs all their lives, had returned home a day after the flooding," he said.
Yang said that on July 31, villagers had been warned about imminent flooding, which burst through dykes the next day.
He collected his parents and grandparents from the village on Monday and took them to an apartment where he and his wife live in downtown Zhuozhou.
"On Wednesday morning, my parents heard that the water level was not that high in the village and they were determined to go back to check that everything was OK," he said.
Several hours later, Yang lost contact with them. When he rushed to the village, he found the water had risen by about 2 meters.
"I swam for about a kilometer, finally arriving at our home to find that my parents had escaped from the waters on the second floor of the two-story house. The first floor was under water," he said.
"Knowing they were safe, I swam away to find a rescue team to evacuate them."
His parents were eventually taken to safety by rescue teams, along with more than 300 other villagers, most of them seniors who didn't want to leave.
"None of us expected the flooding to be so serious, and no one was adequately prepared," Yang said, adding that people in such a situation, especially seniors, should enhance their awareness of flood control measures and related dangers.
Sun Liping, professor of sociology at Tsinghua University's School of Social Sciences in Beijing, said in an article on WeChat on Friday, "The heavy rain resulted in a serious disaster, reminding us once again that there is a need for flood awareness in northern China, which is accustomed to drought."
There are many aspects to flood awareness, including experience, mental preparation, judgment and determination, as well as the need to be prepared, Sun said.
"Such awareness to a large extent determines our response speed, methods and effective actions when we encounter flood disasters," he added.
Residents in Yang's village didn't leave until the last moment, especially seniors who underestimated the seriousness of the situation and failed to make any preparations.
"We don't have any basic rescue equipment, such as lifejackets or lifebuoys," Yang said, adding that he is the only member of his family who can swim, even though they all grew up near a river.
An article published two years ago on the China Meteorological Administration's WeChat account said that due to continuous drought in some places, people are eager for water, but lack a strong awareness of the need for flood control measures.
"In addition to this weak awareness, there is insufficient disaster response experience among grassroots organizations," the article said, citing meteorology experts.
It added that the mechanism for forecasting and preventing flood disasters should be strengthened.
The city of Zhuozhou, one of the areas in Hebei province hit hardest by unprecedentedly heavy rainfall and flooding triggered by Typhoon Doksuri, has shifted its focus from first response to extensive disinfection and post-disaster cleanup.
Over the weekend, videos and pictures circulated on social media showing many dead animals and lots of scattered trash on the streets of urban as well as rural Zhuozhou. This showed an urgent need for disinfection as the floodwaters gradually recede in various parts of the city.
The city's center for disease control and prevention said on Saturday that it had dispatched 15 teams to local towns and temporary shelters to guide disinfection and infectious disease prevention and control efforts. These teams provided detailed explanations to front-line staff on the proportions and use of disinfectants, it said.
On Saturday, an employee at the city's disease control and prevention center was quoted by Hubei province-based Jiupai News as saying that large-scale disinfection would be carried out in urban areas, and residents had been advised to minimize outdoor activities.
Wang Dong, Party chief of Baita village in Zhuozhou, told China Daily on Sunday that more than 140 villagers had voluntarily taken to the streets over the weekend to remove mud and debris and disinfect the area.
He said that more than 30 additional members of a rescue team from Qingdao, Shandong province, arrived in the village on Sunday to help with disinfection, as they had shifted their focus from rescue work to disinfection and epidemic prevention since Saturday. More than 200 households out of the total 680 households in Baita have been heavily affected by flooding, with their houses and crops severely damaged, according to Wang.
To assist in the restoration of transportation, some 70 members of the People's Armed Police Force were mobilized on Saturday to clean up mud and trash along National Highway 107, People's Daily reported, adding that the cleanup work was challenging because of the deep mud and complicated mixture of debris.
According to the Health Commission of Hebei province, 547 medical teams had been dispatched by Friday to provide door-to-door health services to people in urban and rural areas of the province, ensuring timely treatment for the injured and sick, and effectively preventing infectious diseases.
The commission also said that local health authorities were making every effort to thoroughly clean up garbage, sludge, sewage and other wastes in residential and surrounding areas.
Emergency health monitoring has been launched to target intestinal, respiratory and food-borne diseases to which disaster-affected areas are vulnerable, the commission said, adding that it has strengthened efforts to assess the risk of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management announced that they would allocate an additional 350 million yuan ($48.8 million) of central natural disaster relief funds to support local flood response efforts in seven provincial-level areas.
According to the National Financial Regulatory Administration, as of Thursday, insurance institutions received some 143,600 claims in 14 flood-stricken areas.
CHANGCHUN -- Fourteen people had been killed and one remained missing as of 10 pm Sunday after heavy rain battered the city of Shulan in northeast China's Jilin province, local authorities said.
Water levels in reservoirs and major rivers have so far receded to the safe range.
Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.
The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible.
Xi's instructions have guided all-out efforts in flood-stricken northern areas
China has enhanced rescue and relief efforts in flood-stricken regions after heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Doksuri hit Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province in North China, as well as parts of Northeast China.
In recent days, flooding in those regions stranded residents, washed away bridges and highways, killed at least 30 people and forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes.
With people's lives and property in mind, the Communist Party of China Central Committee, with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core, has put people first in fighting the disaster.
In July, Xi had made an instruction on flood prevention and disaster relief work, emphasizing the need to strengthen coordination, enhance consultation and assessment, improve monitoring and early warning capabilities, and prioritize the protection of people's lives and property while minimizing losses.
During his recent inspection tour in Sichuan province from July 25 to 27, Xi, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for Party committees and governments at various levels to shoulder the responsibilities for flood prevention and disaster relief. He also emphasized the need to carry out relief work scientifically, prevent secondary disasters and minimize casualties and property loss.
Unprecedented torrential rain struck Beijing from July 29 to Wednesday, causing severe flooding in Beijing's Mentougou and Fangshan districts. More than 2,800 passengers aboard three trains were stranded due to the rain and flooding.
The stranded passengers had a difficult time. With food shortages, limited drinking water, interrupted communication signals and a drop in temperature, compounded by roads being cut off due to heavy rainfall, supplies could only be delivered by foot through muddy terrain and difficult conditions.
Learning about the situation, Xi expressed his concern about the safety of the stranded passengers and made an important instruction immediately.
"Local authorities and relevant departments must get communication with the trains and make every effort to organize rescue operations, provide food and medicine, and transfer those who need to be moved to ensure the safety of the stranded passengers," he said.
On Tuesday, Xi made new instructions on flood prevention and disaster relief work, calling for full efforts in the search for and rescue of missing and stranded individuals, providing medical treatment for the injured, offering assistance to the families of the deceased, and minimizing casualties.
"As a modern metropolis, Beijing must withstand this test," he said.
Thanks to the concerted efforts, the last group of stranded passengers at the Anjiazhuang and Luopoling stations in Mentougou district were evacuated to safety on Thursday.
Zhao Yang, an attendant on the stranded K396 train, said, "We were able to return safely because of the strength given to us by General Secretary Xi Jinping, the CPC Central Committee and the people."
Communications and electricity in disaster-stricken areas have gradually been restored, roads are being reopened, and affected people have been properly resettled. Post-disaster reconstruction work is being carried out intensively.
Putting people first and prioritizing people's lives are principles that Xi has emphasized repeatedly and steadfastly in disaster prevention and relief work.
He urged Party committees and governments at all levels to maintain readiness and perform well in inspections and emergency response work.
Particular attention should be paid to the flooding and rains in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the northeastern region of the country, he said.
In Hebei, 883 townships in 98 counties had been hit by flooding, affecting more than 2.2 million people. The province had sent 3,385 working groups and mobilized materials worth 150 million yuan ($21 million) to assist with rescue and relief efforts as of Friday morning, according to the province's Department of Emergency Management.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management jointly allocated 350 million yuan of central natural disaster relief funds to support flood control and disaster relief efforts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as well as other provinces including Heilongjiang and Jilin.
Together with a previous allocation of 170 million yuan, the central government has provided a total of 520 million yuan for disaster relief in these regions.
China Daily - Xinhua
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities on Sunday earmarked an additional 350 million yuan ($50 million) to assist flood-hit regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and also provinces in Northeast China.
So far, the central government has allocated 520 million yuan in central natural disaster relief funds to the above-mentioned regions, according to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Local governments can use these funds for disaster relief, emergency response, relocating residents, seeking flood-related hazards, and restoring damaged homes, the authorities said.
Torrential rainstorms and floods have wreaked havoc in north and northeast China over the past week.
In the face of the emergency, China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) actively participated in rescue operations. Centrally-administered SOEs have dispatched rescue workers, equipment, and vehicles to help reinforce river embankments, repair roads, relocate residents, and restore power and communication facilities.
Insurance companies also accelerated compensation payments in 16 flood-hit regions, paying out 264 million yuan so far. The total compensation claims from car damages to losses of crops have amounted to 6.24 billion yuan.
TIANJIN -- North China's Tianjin Municipality issued a red alert on Sunday, the highest level of warning, for possible floods in its Daqinghe River, a major tributary of the Haihe River, which is currently undergoing its worst flooding since 1963, said local authorities.
The Daqinghe River saw its floods reach the range of Tianjin at noon on Aug 4 when the city had already put the river's significant floodwater detention and retention area into use.
Relevant personnel, emergency vehicles and disaster relief materials have been sent to the floodwater detention and retention area, with the riverway's outer embankment reinforcement work underway.
At present, the Haihe River Basin in northern China is experiencing the worst flooding caused by rainstorms, said the Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources.
BEIJING -- Rescuers of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) have evacuated 1,475 people in the flood-affected city of Zhuozhou, North China's Hebei province, said the society on Sunday.
The RCSC had dispatched 14 rescue teams with over 200 members to Zhuozhou as of Saturday after rainstorms battered the city.
It has deployed 7,700 items of disaster relief supplies, including tents and convertible beds, and arranged 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) for people in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei to restore normal life and production. It also allocated more than 2.5 million yuan worth of humanitarian aid to Zhuozhou.
After days of search and evacuation efforts, RCSC teams on Saturday began disinfection work in residential and commercial areas in the city, according to the RCSC.
TIANJIN -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing on Saturday urged work to reinforce dikes and levees and keep flood relief channels clear.
Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited Tianjin on Saturday and went to the flood fighting front lines to check on water levels and dam reinforcement work.
Extremely heavy rainfall hit Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei recently, bringing challenges for downstream flood discharge in the Haihe River basin, he said.
Given upstream uncertainty, it is necessary to reinforce dams which are crucial or relatively weak, he said, adding that central and local state-owned enterprises should play a professional role at this moment.
He also urged full preparation of flood fighting equipment, 24-hour patrols on dikes and proper relocation of residents.
CHANGCHUN -- Nine people have been killed and one remain missing after heavy rain battered the city of Shulan in Northeast China's Jilin province, local authorities said Saturday night.
As of Saturday noon, nine reservoirs exceeding flood limits in the city had maintained proper discharge. The current round of rainfall has now basically ended.
A total of 18,916 people have been evacuated, with 21 temporary relocation facilities established. Also, rescue forces have restored functionality of 85 electricity and 26 telecommunication facilities.
Shulan had been experiencing continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. As of 3:00 pm Friday, the average daily precipitation had reached 111.7 mm.
BEIJING -- Beijing has been speeding up the restoration of key roads damaged in flood-hit areas, such as the districts of Fangshan and Mentougou, since Thursday, to assist with rescue and relief efforts.
Chinese authorities had launched massive rescue and relief efforts in response to typhoon-induced torrential rains. Over the past few days, Beijing has seen the heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago, leaving 11 dead in the city.
A total of 93 highways above the county level in Beijing have been damaged by flooding, all of which are located in the suburbs.
Local authorities said the restoration work of damaged roads in Beijing is still facing great pressure. About 840 rural roads and three urban roads have also been damaged by floodwater.
However, with manpower and large machinery reinforcements, construction around the clock, and favorable factors such as better weather, the road restoration work continues to make progress.
BEIJING -- The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has dispatched 10 teams to help the rescue and relief work in flood-hit regions in north and northeast China, according to an official meeting on Saturday.
The meeting was held by the office of the headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management, joined by China Meteorological Administration, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Natural Resources and provincial-level flood control offices.
The meeting analyzed the situation of flood and geological disasters in north and northeast China, as well as the Typhoon Khanun, and arranged rescue and relief work in key regions.
The 10 working teams are assisting local authorities in flood control and rescue in Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Jilin and Heilongjiang, the office of the headquarters said.
The Ministry of Emergency Management has also assigned professional rescue teams to the worst-affected areas.
Also, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters maintained the Level-II emergency response in Tianjin and Hebei, and Level-III in Beijing, Jilin and Heilongjiang.
China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.
BEIJING - Market and price manipulations in flood-stricken regions will be curbed and punished, according to a notice released by China's State Administration for Market Regulation on Saturday.
The administration warns against fabricating and peddling news about hikes in demand or prices, hoarding daily necessities, jacking up prices and colluding in raising prices.
It also forbids incorrect pricing, price fraud and any other market-related means that infringe on the lawful rights and interests of consumers or businesses.
The market regulation authorities at all levels will strengthen inspection and law enforcement to crack down on illegal acts of price manipulation, the notice stressed.
Torrential rainstorms and floods have wreaked havoc in north and northeast China over the past week.
SHENYANG/HARBIN -- The typhoon-induced heavy rains have pushed the water level of dozens of rivers in northeast China's provinces of Liaoning and Heilongjiang above the warning mark, local authorities said Saturday.
At 6 a.m. Saturday, the water level in the main stream of the Liaohe River in Liaoning, one of the country's largest rivers, exceeded the warning mark by 33 cm, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.
From 8 a.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday, torrential rains lashed the central and eastern parts of Liaoning.
The total storage capacity of 37 large reservoirs in Liaoning witnessed an increase of over 3.66 billion cubic meters compared with the same period in previous years.
Six reservoirs in the province have exceeded flood limits and are discharging water.
Eight cities and 45 county-level regions in Liaoning have launched emergency response for flood control, among which the cities of Fushun and Dandong have activated a Level-III emergency response. China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.
The Liaoning Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism has canceled the trips of 117 tour groups in the cities of Jinzhou, Yingkou and Panjin from Tuesday to Friday.
The Liaoning Provincial Department of Water Resources is closely monitoring the rivers, including the main stream of the Liaohe River, and reservoirs in the rain-affected area. The authorities are conducting an analysis of their rainstorm-resistance capacity to provide valuable assistance in flood control and disaster reduction efforts.
In addition, a total of 371 personnel have been mobilized, resulting in the successful rescue of 29 local residents.
According to the Heilongjiang Provincial Hydrology and Water Resources Center, as of 8 a.m. Saturday, the water level of 25 rivers in the province had exceeded the warning mark by 6 cm to 3.4 meters, of which five exceeded the guaranteed water level.
Four large, seven medium and 35 small reservoirs in Heilongjiang had operated above the flood limit of 4 cm to 4.84 meters as of 8:40 a.m. Saturday, the center said.
As this round of typhoon-induced torrential rains have come to an end in Beijing, some villagers of Fangshan district, who had been evacuated to settlement sites due to heavy rainfall over the previous few days, returned home on Saturday after experts assessed the safety of their residences.
Beijing has, over the past few days, seen the heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago.
HARBIN -- Yu Yangyang, a firefighter in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, has had little sleep over the past few nights due to the work that he and his colleagues have been doing to rescue people stranded by floods caused by heavy rainfall.
For days, Heilongjiang has been grappling with continuous heavy rain, leading to the formation of the first major flood of the year along several rivers. The continuous downpours have caused vehicles to be submerged, people trapped and roads blocked.
Amid the deluge, Yu and his team from the city of Mudanjiang have been traveling on foot where vehicles are unavailable, wading through floodwaters to reach those in need. They worked in relays to carry the elderly and those with disabilities on their backs.
In Harbin, the provincial capital, floods had affected 135,430 residents, forcing 53,355 individuals to relocate as of 4 p.m. Friday. The cities of Shangzhi and Wuchang, administered by Harbin, are severely affected by the inundation.
In Shangzhi, Harbin's forest fire brigade has dispatched 654 personnel and 72 vehicles to the main urban area and other regions to reinforce levees and evacuate stranded residents.
So far, they have successfully rescued nearly 400 people and 170 vehicles, and have transported more than 15,000 sets of supplies. They have also reinforced levees over a distance of 850 meters and filled over 17,500 sandbags.
"Putting people first is the essence of disaster relief. No matter how arduous or dangerous the situation may be, we must do everything we can to safeguard the lives and property of the people," said Zhang Libo, deputy commander of the brigade.
In Wuchang, temporary shelters have been set up to accommodate evacuated residents.
Chen Lihua, principal of Yachen Middle School in Wuchang, said that on Thursday, the school campus was transformed into a flood relief center in as little as three hours. Around 40 school staff have volunteered to help organize the evacuees, register them and allocate rooms.
One of the affected residents, Chen Shifen, from Xinxing Village in Wuchang, sought shelter at the school. She left her home after receiving the notice to evacuate.
"There were buses to pick us up, and I simply packed up and left," she recalled.
Though anxious at first, she found comfort in reuniting with familiar faces from her village and witnessing the hard work of the staff at the relief center. "I feel secure and warm," she said.
BEIJING -- China has strengthened insurance support for people affected by floods and geological disasters triggered by recent extreme rainfall in north China and the regions along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, according to the National Financial Regulatory Administration.
As of Thursday, insurance institutions in 14 disaster-stricken areas received 143,600 claims, which mainly involve automobile, enterprise property and agricultural insurance. The total estimated losses in these cases stood at 3.29 billion yuan (about $460.67 million), said the administration.
So far, the institutions have settled 27,300 such cases, with a total payment of 116 million yuan.
The administration has instructed insurance institutions to offer services efficiently through accurate prediction, solid preparation, smooth communication, simple procedures, fast payment and specialized services.
Shulan city in Northeast China's Jilin province has been experiencing continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. About 134,000 people have been affected, with more than 14,300 people evacuated, according to the flood control and drought relief headquarters of Shulan.
Continuous heavy rainfall caused flooding, bridge collapses and road damages in several towns of Shulan. Jilin province have dispatched many rescue reinforcements to Shulan to offer disaster relief support.
BEIJING -- China's meteorological authority on Saturday renewed a yellow alert for severe convective weather in vast stretches of the country.
From 2 pm Saturday to 2 pm Sunday, thunderstorms, gales and hail will sweep parts of Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, according to the National Meteorological Center.
Short bursts of heavy rainfall with maximum hourly precipitation exceeding 70 millimeters will lash most regions of the country, including parts of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Taiwan, the center said.
It has urged relevant authorities to prepare for emergencies and adopt traffic control measures at airports, railways, expressways and waterways to ensure safety.
The center has also suggested checking drainage systems in cities, farmlands and fishponds, and making preparations for flash floods, landslides, mudslides and other disasters.
China has a three-tier, color-coded weather warning system for severe convective weather, with orange representing the most severe warning, followed by yellow and blue.
BEIJING -- After all-out repair efforts, all communications in the flood-hit villages in Beijing have been restored, the Beijing Communications Administration said on Saturday.
Chinese authorities had launched massive rescue and relief efforts in response to typhoon-induced torrential rains. Beijing has, over the previous few days, seen the heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago, leaving 11 dead in the city.
According to the Beijing Communications Administration, the cooperation between Beijing and neighboring Hebei province, has played an important role in the process of restoring communications in the villages cut off from the outside world. After the joint efforts of the emergency repair workers from Beijing and communication operators in Hebei, the communication signal in the disaster area has been restored.
Meanwhile, Beijing has made significant efforts to enhance communication restoration efficiency through the integrated use of satellite phones, mobile base station vehicles and vehicles that provide power support.
On Friday, unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with high-altitude base station equipment achieved 5G signal coverage for six consecutive hours over Wangping township and Tanzhesi township in Beijing's Mentougou district and the surrounding nearly 80 square kilometers area. During this time, the aerial setup provided voice, SMS, and internet services for over 2,000 users.
According to authorities, the communication services, including fixed voice service, public internet service and mobile network service, are functioning normally in Beijing except for the districts of Fangshan, Mentougou and Changping, where the emergency personnel are diligently working to restore communications.
As of Saturday afternoon, the recent heavy rainfall in Baoding city, Hebei province, has resulted in 10 deaths and 18 missing, according to local authorities.
The number of affected people in Baoding has reached 1.1 million, with 627,000 individuals being urgently relocated from high-risk areas.
Caused by the Typhoon Doksuri, the strong rainfall in Baoding led to an average precipitation of 353.1 millimeters, with the maximum daily precipitation reaching 419.7mm, which has surpassed the historical record of 400.08mm in the city.
The prolonged duration and large cumulative rainfall has resulted in flooding in all of Baoding's 22 counties. A total of 284 bridges have been damaged, with over 550 kilometers of rural roads severely affected. The direct economic losses have reached 16.995 billion yuan, said the local authority.
Baoding government is currently enhancing the inspection and early warning system for geological hazards such as landslides and mudslides. Efforts are being focused on investigating and addressing risk-prone sections of rivers and medium-sized reservoirs to prevent secondary disasters. The authorities are making every effort to restore normal production and living conditions as soon as possible.
In the face of devastating floods in Zhuozhou city, North China's Hebei province, volunteer Zhao Zhansheng has won hearts online with his selfless act of offering free meals to affected residents and rescuers.
Zhao, 43, is a dedicated member of the Shenying rescue team, a civil relief unit in Luoyang city, Central China's Henan province. On Wednesday morning, he and his companions arrived in flood-stricken Zhuozhou to help with flood relief efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Doksuri.
In a video posted on social media platforms, Zhao skillfully prepared hand-pulled huimian noodles, a local specialty of his hometown, right on the streets. He invited local residents and rescuers passing by to have a meal.
Zhuozhou is one of the cities most severely affected by the floods in Hebei province, where more than 2.22 million people have been impacted. Over 150 civilian rescue teams from all over the country have come to offer their assistance.
"Please let the kids who haven't had breakfast this morning eat first, then the rescuers and the local fellows. Don't worry. We have plenty of food. Anyone who come to my stand can have a bowl of hot noodles today," Zhao yelled to the crowd gathering around.
The video went viral and touched hundreds of millions citizen's hearts after being posted on Zhao's personal account on short-video platform Douyin on Wednesday afternoon, receiving nearly 10 million views, over 770,000 likes and 54,000 comments till Friday.
Rescuers from various provinces, including Shandong and Sichuan, were seen in the video, forming lines to receive the meal.
"We made 13 pots of noodles, enough to feed about 800 people," Zhao said in an interview with Shangyou News.
Compliments poured in for Zhao's heartwarming work. One comment read, "We Chinese stand in solidarity in face of adversity." Another read, "All people working on the relief front are heroes. Wish you all a safe return," and more said, "A pot of noodles may cost around a hundred yuan but his kindness comes with no price."
"Despite their great losses, many locals joined me in preparing the meals. I'm grateful for their support as well," Zhao said.
"My other team members are busy with rescuing stranded people and they worked even harder than me. My role is to provide support," Zhao in response to overwhelming praise.
Zhao's free food stand continues operation and offered thousands more people stewed dishes and noodles.
"The supplies we brought from Henan can sustain us four to five days if we provide food for about 500 people a day," said Zhao.
"If we run out of what we've brought, we can replenish our supplies locally. I will stay in Zhuozhou until the floodwaters recede, offering help wherever it is needed," Zhao added.
Zhao has engaged in voluntary work for about 20 years, including the earthquake relief efforts in Wenchuan and Yushu.
In the wake of severe rainfall in North China, up to 2.22 million people have been affected in Hebei province, which neighbors the capital Beijing, with 98 counties and 883 townships being ravaged by floods, according to provincial emergency response authorities.
The province has relocated 1.54 million people, including 961,200 individuals from flood retention areas, during the rescue work.
To bolster flood prevention and relief efforts in the affected regions, as of 8:00 am on Friday, Hebei province has deployed a total of 3,385 work teams and allocated resources worth 150 million yuan（$20.92 million).
Zhuozhou is one of the most severely affected cities in Hebei. Various levels of rescue forces were sent to help. Currently, over 300 specialized emergency rescue teams, comprising a total of 6,913 personnel, are engaged in on-site rescue operations in Zhuozhou.
A total of 16 million people in China were affected by various natural disasters that caused 147 deaths in July, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Meanwhile, 703,000 people were urgently relocated and resettled. The calamities also resulted in the collapse of 4,300 houses, severe damage to 8,400 houses, and minor damage to 40,000 houses. Additionally, around 3,134 thousand hectares of farmland were affected by the disasters, leading to a direct economic loss of 41 billion yuan.
China is prone to natural disasters, with floods, typhoons, geological hazards, and droughts being the main occurrences. Windstorms, earthquakes, sandstorms, and forest fires are also observed in various regions, though to a lesser extent.
In response to the severe rainstorm and flood disasters in Heilongjiang province, the National Disaster Reduction Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management have activated a Level 4 emergency response. A task force has been dispatched to the affected areas to assess the situation and provide guidance and assistance to local authorities in providing basic life assistance for the affected people.
Efforts are being made to ensure that the affected population receives the necessary support and assistance during this challenging time.
The government is working proactively to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and reduce their devastating effects on people’s lives and economic assets.
Days of rescue work in Zhuozhou, North China's Hebei province, helped ensure the safety of flood-trapped residents as most of those affected have been relocated to safety and the city has enacted enhanced emergency supply responses to address interrupted water and power supplies.
Emergency rescue teams from many locations began leaving as most of the rescue work has been completed, the local government said on Friday.
Located about 80 kilometers southwest of Beijing, the county-level city began facing flooding from torrential rains earlier this week, with villages, residential communities and urban thoroughfares submerged and infrastructure heavily damaged.
To address power outages, State Grid Corp had dispatched more than 90 power-generating vehicles and over 200 generators by Friday. To restore communications, three aerial base stations were sent from China Mobile, one of the country's major telecom operators, on Wednesday.
As of Thursday morning, one of the stations had been put into operation to provide emergency communication support, according to the province's emergency management department.
Each station can cover an area of over 30 square kilometers and support 200 China Mobile users making phone calls at the same time, xinhuanet.com reported.
Preparations for base stations from another two major telecom operators — China Telecom and China Unicom — were also underway on Friday.
To restore water supplies, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has set up multiple sites to help provide adequate quantities of bottled water, which can basically meet the drinking water needs of locals.
Also, 16 special vehicles providing emergency water supplies and 52 experts have been dispatched from the country's water emergency rescue centers in Zhengzhou, Henan province, and Fushun, Liaoning province, according to the ministry.
As of Friday morning, the Zhengzhou teams had provided about 180 metric tons of potable water, a report by The Paper said.
The ministry has also set up mobile latrines with 300 toilet cubicles from Beijing as there was no water available for flushing in some upper floors of residential community buildings.
"I'm so relieved we now have access to electricity," Xiao Jifeng, a resident in an affected residential community, said on Friday, adding that two days had passed without power.
The community is now equipped with eight of the emergency power-generating vehicles that started operations on Friday morning, said Hou Naiqian, who is in charge of 27 such vehicles from Shandong province.
Hou said they will not leave until normal power supply resumes in Zhuozhou.
"But the vehicles can only enter communities in need when the floodwaters drop," he added.
To facilitate the floodwaters receding, the ministry has coordinated 14 water-pumping vehicles and 63 employees from Beijing Drainage Group Co.
They will first pump floodwaters from important public infrastructure facilities such as hospitals, substations and large residential communities that were heavily flooded, China Media Group reported.
Before that, the provincial department of housing and urban-rural development had sent 18 pumping vehicles which began work on Tuesday.
Floodwater levels in hard-hit locations, such as the towns of Diaowo and Matou, began receding on Thursday, two days after the rains stopped, according to locals and rescue teams.
Although the rains have stopped, high water levels in nearby rivers and flooded areas will require a process to normalize, Li Na, deputy head of the Department of Water Resources of Hebei, told CCTV.
"It will take a week to a month for the waters to thoroughly recede," she said. During the process, there still will be about 300 to 400 million cubic meters of water running through the city.
There are multiple rivers that converge in or run through Zhuozhou, including the Xiaoqing, Beijuma and Liuli. Water levels in the rivers have greatly increased due to downpours and floodwaters from upstream stretches.
More than 150 civilian rescue teams from around the country have been traveling to the flood-hit city of Zhuozhou, Hebei province, to help with relief efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Doksuri, with strong support from locals seen as well.
He Jun, captain of the Ram Union rescue team, was deeply moved after they rescued five migrant workers from Sichuan province, together with two children, that were stranded on a roof for two days and one night.
They had no food or drinking water and could only drink the water from a solar-powered heater located on the roof. When the rescuers reached them, the mother of the children wept tears of relief, He told cnr.com.
The team consists of 60 members from Beijing, as well as from the provinces of Zhejiang, Shanxi, Jiangsu among other places, and includes 13 rescue vehicles, eight motorboats, 1.5 tons of rescue equipment and a large twin-rotor rescue helicopter.
On Wednesday, they utilized the helicopter to rescue 39 trapped individuals, including a 4-month-old baby.
"What impressed me most was a couple in their 90s trapped upstairs without food or drink. When we carried them out, they were very weak. Thankfully, we arrived in time," said Wang Fangzhen, head of the Heze Zebra Voluntary Rescue Center.
They also donated a batch of supplies from their hometown, mainly instant noodles, bottled water, bread and other items, to distribute to people in need, Wang told cnr.com.
While the rescuers are going all out on the front lines, their local partners are providing support closer to home.
For the Z-Care civil rescue team from Shanghai, apart from the seven rescuers in Zhuozhou, another 11 members are providing operational support from Shanghai, helping them navigate through the flooded areas and devising rescue plans.
As of Thursday, the team had rescued over 200 people, including paralyzed elderly and newborns.
When rescue forces from all over the country joined the relief work, many locals also volunteered to support the arriving teams.
When seeing some rescuers from the Shanxi Tianlong Rescue Team take a break after helping more than 100 trapped people on Wednesday, a local resident brought snacks to their vehicles.
The owner of a local tent factory helped repair motorboats for the rescue teams free of charge, and the principal of a local kindergarten accommodated rescue teams in classrooms.
According to Hebei TV, a youth sought out members of a rescue team from Tangshan, Hebei province, to share chocolates with them, and a mother and son sent them other snacks.
A group of chefs from Qinghai, who run noodle shops in Zhuozhou, spontaneously gathered together to provide free bowls of noodles to those affected by the flooding.
"Seeing that many people did not have hot food for a few days, we just wanted to do something," one of them said in a video clip. On Wednesday alone, they served around 3,000 bowls of noodles.
As emergency rescue operations have mostly been completed, some rescue teams have begun to withdraw beginning on Thursday.
After having successfully rescued 269 trapped individuals, the Ram Union rescue team departed from Zhuozhou on Thursday, sources from the Zhejiang Ram Union Public Welfare and Rescue Promotion Association said.
Ram Union's He said the flood situation has stabilized, and the focus of the remaining operations will be on relocating personnel and delivering supplies.
Many residents lined up along the streets to bid farewell to some rescue teams on Friday, saying, "Thank you and have a safe trip."
Wang Xin in Shanghai contributed to this story.
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities on Friday earmarked 450 million yuan (about $63 million) to support post-disaster restoration in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei after torrential rains caused heavy casualties and property losses.
The central budget funds will be used to support the restoration of damaged water conservancy projects and facilities in regions that have been hit hard by rainstorms and floods, according to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Water Resources.
Chinese authorities have launched massive rescue and relief efforts in response to typhoon-induced torrential rains, which left 11 dead in Beijing and 9 dead in Hebei.
Monitoring data at some river sites in Heilongjiang province shows that the water levels have exceeded the warning level, the provincial hydrology and water resource center alerted on Friday.
As a result of the strong rainfall, the water level at the No 2 hydrologic station on the Mudanjiang River in Mudanjiang city has reached 229.01 meters, exceeding the warning water level by 0.01 meters, and the water level shows a rising trend, CCTV News reported on Friday.
As the No 1 flood on Mudanjiang River has formed, local government urged residents to strengthen prevention and pay attention to risks along the river.
On Friday morning, the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Natural Resources and the Heilongjiang Meteorological Bureau jointly issued a series of red, orange and yellow warnings for meteorological risks of geological disasters.
Affected by heavy rainfall, from 10 am on Friday to 8 pm on Saturday, regions including parts of Harbin and the whole city of Mudanjiang will have a high meteorological risk of geological disasters (red alert).
Some other regions received an orange alert or a yellow alert for the prevention of landslides, debris flows and other geological disasters caused by heavy rainfall.
Heavy rainfall has also affected parts of Wuchang, a county-level city in Harbin, which is famous for its high-quality rice, Southern Urban Daily reported on Thursday.
Farmers in the city told Southern Urban Daily some rice fields were flooded, which will have an adverse impact on rice during the current rice heading and flowering period.
Zhang Wenshuang, a farmer in Leyuan village, planted 6.67 hectares of rice this year.
"As of Thursday, around three hectares of my farmland have flooded," he said. "I had a yield of 30,000 kilograms of rice that sold 200,000 yuan ($27,846.6) last year."
"The constant rain may cause failure of production in the autumn," he said. "It is difficult to avoid losing money."
International retailers in China have actively donated to support relief work following the recent heavy rainfall in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
Coca-Cola China has activated its Clean Water 24 relief mechanism and mobilized bottled water from nearby channels to send safe drinking water to rainfall-affected regions quickly. As of August 4, Coca-Cola China has delivered 247,800 bottles of drinking water to Fangshan district and Mentougou district in Beijing, as well as to Langfang, Xiong'an New Area, and Zhuozhou in Hebei province.
Meanwhile, on August 2, the Beijing Starbucks Foundation pledged to donate 1 million yuan ($139,000) to flood-stricken areas in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province. The donation to the Beijing Peaceland Foundation will contribute to emergency aid.
Food and beverage company Danone has donated about 30,000 bottles of Mizone, a functional drink, and 2,400 cans of formula milk to cater to the safe drinking water and nutrition needs of relief workers and families affected by the heavy rainfall.
Sportswear brand Puma has also pledged to donate material worth 10 million yuan to the China Foundation for Rural Development to support the affected regions.
Rescue teams from around the country have started to withdraw from Zhuozhou, a flood-hit city in North China's Hebei province, as most of the rescue work has completed, according to local government on Friday.
Local people lined the streets to salute and bid farewell to the rescue workers.?
Drone base stations have been put into use in Zhuozhou, Hebei province to ensure phone signals for local residents and rescuers as original signal sources had been affected by days of rainfall and follow-up flooding.
Three aerial base stations were dispatched from China Mobile - one of China's major telecom operators - on Wednesday. As of Thursday morning one of them has been put into operation to provide emergency communication support, according to the province's emergency management department, cited by a report of xinhuanet.com.
Each station can cover an area of over 30 square kilometers and support 200 China Mobile users making phone calls at the same time.
The preparation for the base stations from another two major telecom operators - China Telecom and China Unicom - are underway, the report said.
The National Meteorological Center has declared the recent heavy rainfall in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from Saturday to Tuesday "a historically extreme event".
The intensity of the rainfall surpassed previous significant rainstorms in the region, including those in 1996, 2012 and 2016.
During the four days, rainfall pummeled Beijing for 83 hours, the center said.
Over three days, 26 national weather monitoring stations reported accumulated rainfall exceeding historical records.
The extreme heavy rainfall in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region can be attributed to typhoons and the mountainous landscape in the region, said Zhang Hengde, deputy director of the center.
An abundant supply of water vapor in the atmosphere was brought by the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri and combined with the southeastern airflow of a subtropical high and moisture transported from distant Typhoon Khanun, said Zhang.
"The vapor had been converging toward the North China Plain. Plus, the presence of mountain ranges such as the Taihang and Yanshan mountains caused an uplifting motion, forcing the water vapor to condense and intensifying the rain," he said.
According to meteorological statistics, the accumulated rainfall during this period was double or even triple the historical average for the same period.
The greatest impact was seen in Beijing, Tianjin, and central parts of Hebei.
The cumulative rainfall in Hebei province's Liangjiazhuang village in Xingtai surpassed 1,003 millimeters within two days, which is more than twice the amount of precipitation the city typically receives in a whole year.
Similarly, some parts of Beijing recorded more than 700 mm of accumulated rainfall, far exceeding the previous records.
Such extreme heavy rainfall can lead to urban flooding and waterlogged areas, greatly affecting transportation, urban operations, agricultural production and people's daily lives, the center said.
Typhoon Khanun, which is strong and located in the southeastern part of the East China Sea, will turn northeast away from the coast of southern Zhejiang from Thursday through Friday.
It is forecast to weaken as it moves toward southeastern Japan.
Over the next 10 days, another typhoon is expected in the northwest Pacific and the South China Sea, but it is unlikely to affect China, the center said.
Low-lying lakes, wetlands, farms, even residential areas come to use in Hebei
Hebei province has made use of seven detention areas to effectively reduce floodwater pressure in the basin, a senior official from the provincial water authority said.
The province witnessed 144 hours of heavy rainfall over the week, which stopped on Wednesday.
During the period, the province recorded an average rainfall of 146.2 millimeters, amounting to about 27.5 billion cubic meters of water, which is more than double the combined total storage capacity of all large and medium-sized reservoirs in Hebei, chinanews.com reported.
As of Wednesday, the province had diverted about 1.8 billion cubic meters of floodwater to detention areas, according to the provincial emergency management department.
A detention basin is an area that is designed or designated for the temporary or permanent retention of floodwaters. "These low-lying areas include lakes, wetlands, farms and even residential areas," Cheng Xiaotao, deputy chief engineer of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, told China Central Television.
More than 850,000 residents living around the detention areas, including Xiaoqing River, Langouwa and Dongdian, have been relocated to safety, the emergency management department said, adding that another 370,000 people have been evacuated from other regions.
"The flood detention areas that we used turned out to be effective," Li Na, deputy head of the Department of Water Resources of Hebei province, told CCTV on Wednesday night.
In particular, two detention areas near Zhuozhou, which was still facing waterlogging on Thursday, have played an important role in retaining flood from a branch of the Daqing River.
"If it had not been for the two areas controlling floodwaters, the pressure on downstream flood control in Xiong'an and Tianjin would have been very heavy," she said.
The provincial top leadership highlighted the importance of flood control by coordinating resources. "We should strengthen the inspection of reservoirs, dams and flood channels to comprehensively defuse risks and ensure the safety of surrounding areas," Ni Yuefeng, secretary of Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said during an inspection tour of Baoding on Tuesday.
The floodwaters that have flowed into the detention areas will recede along their original path after the water level drops in major rivers, he added.
Since the rain stopped on Wednesday, the water levels in the rivers have started to drop and thus the amount of water in the flood detention areas will gradually reduce, said Li, from Hebei's department of water resources.
Some villages located in higher areas will see the waterline receding in about a week, while the water might take up to a month to retreat from low-lying areas, Li said.
"The country will compensate for the civil losses suffered including to crops, livestock and housing, according to regulations," Cheng said.
For example, the cost of properties damaged in the detention areas due to flooding will be compensated by 70 percent, according to the interim measures for compensation in detention areas.
Netizens have rallied around BooksChina.com, one of the country's biggest online bookstores, which has been severely affected by heavy rain and flooding triggered by Typhoon Doksuri.
In a statement issued on its website and multiple social media platforms, including WeChat and Sina Weibo, the bookseller said its warehouse in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, suffered the "most destructive impact" of flooding since the company was founded 25 years ago.
More than 4 million books, which accounted for roughly 80 percent of its inventory, have been damaged by floodwaters, the statement said.
On Tuesday night, after the company sent out messages on social media saying that some of its employees were trapped on the fourth floor of the warehouse, netizens helped direct emergency responders to the location.
Some social media users offered to buy damaged books, while others said they were willing to make donations to help BooksChina.com survive the ordeal.
Hebei was battered by heavy rainfall for about 144 hours since July 27, when Typhoon Doksuri plowed into East China's Fujian province.
Zhuozhou received 355 millimeters of rainfall between 8 am on Saturday and 11 am on Tuesday, and over 130,000 people were affected, according to local authorities.
Hebei serves as a logistics hub for many companies in Beijing, and nearly 100 publishing houses keep their books stocked in Zhuozhou.
At around 1:30 pm on Tuesday, employees working at the Books-China.com warehouse shifted some books from the first floor to higher floors, and stacked up sandbags at the entrance, according to Paper.cn.
However, floodwaters inundated the first floor within an hour, and employees rushed to take shelter on the fourth floor. It all happened too quickly and they didn't have enough resources to relocate all the books, the employees said.
At around 9 pm on Tuesday, the company sent out messages seeking help. By 9 am on Wednesday, rescuers found all employees who were trapped in the warehouse and evacuated them to safety.
Netizens, who helped organize the rescue, sent words of encouragement to the company. Many ordered more books, gift cards and other items to extend their support.
"I have bought many books on your website, some of which saved me. ... It is time for me to rescue you," said one Weibo user.
Another user wrote, "Those who survive big disasters are blessed with good fortune afterward."
The company, which mentioned in a statement that the books at its Zhuo-zhou warehouse were almost its "entire stock", said it will not sell the damaged and contaminated books as it valued its readers' safety more.
"We have lost many out-of-print books," the company said in another post. "Many of our previous online orders cannot be delivered. After the flood recedes, we will check how many books can still be sold."
Deeply moved by the kind gestures of social media users, the company said, "Your support gives us the confidence to overcome this difficult period."
BooksChina.com needs three to four weeks to go over pending online orders, and will call or send text messages to clients whose orders cannot be delivered, the company said, adding that they will be refunded.
HARBIN -- The flood control and drought relief headquarters of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province upgraded emergency response measures in two cities on Thursday afternoon, to guard against rainstorms and floods.
The emergency response was raised from Level IV to III in the city of Mudanjiang and the provincial capital Harbin.
The provincial hydrological department forecast that a hydrological station at the Mudanjiang River is expected to see a flood peak of about 230.4 meters on Friday morning, 1.4 meters higher than the warning water level.
The headquarters asked that residents in dangerous areas be moved to safety, with personnel dispatched to embankments and 24-hour patrols conducted to control risks.
BEIJING -- The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has allocated 20 million yuan (around $2.8 million) to aid flood-impacted people in China's Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin for their resettlement as well as post-disaster reconstruction.
Continuous rainstorms have caused flood and geological disasters in the regions, and the RCSC has dispatched working teams to assist with flood control and disaster relief efforts, according to the charity organization on Thursday.
Local RCSC branches have also mobilized rescuers to work on the frontline, conducting rescue operations and facilitating resettlement for those in need, said the RCSC.
Flood control measures including power cuts, water cuts, and traffic control will be implemented in 23 villages across 3 townships within the Dongdian detention reservoir area in Jinghai district, Tianjin, starting from August 3, local flood control authorities said in a notice issued Thursday.
During this period, vehicles and pedestrians are strictly prohibited from entering the area. Once the flood recedes, the power supply, water supply, and traffic will be promptly and orderly restored, it said.
A major flood occurred in the Haihe River, which is touted as the mother river of Tianjin, according to the official WeChat account of the Ministry of Water Resources.
The flood, which hit North China in the wake of heavy rains that have been brought by Typhoon Doksuri since Saturday, arrived in a total of 21 rivers within the five water systems of Haihe River, including the Beisan River, Yongding River, Daqing River, Ziya River, and Zhangweinan Canal.
Among them, six rivers saw water surge above the guaranteed safety levels and eight rivers saw the highest amount of flooding in historical record.
The Yongding, Daqing and Ziya rivers saw large-level flooding, it said.
According to a national watershed flood classification regulation (for trial implementation) issued by the Ministry of Water Resources, it is preliminarily determined that Haihe River has large watershed floods.
The same measures began to be implemented in Xiqing district in areas near the Dongdian reservoir starting at 3 pm on Thursday.
Express delivery companies in northern China are reporting damaged parcels due to flooding caused by heavy rains.
The rains have caused widespread flooding in the region, including in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.
STO Express, a major parcel delivery company in China, said it has made emergency plans in advance to ensure that parcels can be safely stored. However, the company said some parcels have been damaged due to the extreme weather.
YTO Express, another major parcel delivery company, said some of its sites and vehicles have been flooded. The company said it is still counting the loss and will assist local bureaus and sites to explain to customers.
China Post Group's Beijing Branch said mails and parcels in some flood-hit towns in Mentougou, Beijing, have been stored properly. The company said anti-flood supplies such as sand bags have been placed at sites on lower altitude.
As of Thursday, parcel delivery network has resumed operation in most areas in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province. However, some parcels have been delayed. The companies said they are making efforts to solve the problem and deliver the parcels to customers as soon as possible.
Nearly 1,000 passengers who had been trapped for almost two days on train K396 — which was stranded by floodwaters on Beijing's outskirts — showed their sincere thanks to local residents who had offered food and drinks during the tough time.
On Sunday, train K396 from Wuhai, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, to Beijing's Fengtai Station was forced by floods to stop at Mentougou's Luopoling train station in Beijing.
Passengers and crew members had been trapped on trains until being rescued on Wednesday.
During their trapped-time in Luopoling, local residents — whose power and water had been cut off as a result of strong rains — showed their love by getting out all the food they had at home for the passengers.
"I was deeply touched by our people. They are great people full of kindness," said Meng Ermei, a government official in the Luopoling community during an interview with China Central Television on Wednesday.
"There are fewer than 400 permanent residents in the community, mostly elderly. But they accepted nearly 1,000 passengers, sharing food and beds."
Residents did whatever they could to help. Some residents' cars were turned into shelters for passengers. People offered whatever food they had at home and made large quantities of noodles and soup, Meng said.
Since the local water supply had been cut off, residents ran to the mountains to fetch water and came back to cook porridge for the trapped passengers. The passengers were deeply moved.
Liu Chunmei, a passenger on the train from Inner Mongolia, said the residents brought whatever they had, and they barely had anything left for themselves.
"They are so warmhearted," she said.
All the passengers who had been trapped on the train successfully arrived at Beijing's Fengtai Station on Wednesday after being rescued by police personnel who had hiked for four hours to reach them at Luopoling train station and brought food, clothing and medicine.
After putting on an orange life jacket on Wednesday, I squished my feet across a muddy field, stepped on bags of cement, jumped on an inflatable boat and sailed off on a long journey over floodwaters at least 3 meters deep.
I was following a rescue team that was to evacuate trapped residents in a residential community in Zhuozhou, Hebei province — a county-level city that was still fighting inundation on Thursday after days of heavy rainfall.
Waves stirred by the boat were a muddy yellow. We could see nothing under the surface, but we knew we were sailing over streets.
Many unexpected objects were floating on the surface — a steam pot, advertising boards, boxes and buckets. They were from the many buildings along the street (now a river channel).
We passed companies, factories and residential communities, all partly immersed in water.
The one-way journey was about 30 to 40 minutes, and there wasn't a minute without stunning scenes. Boats streamed from the opposite direction. They carried rescued residents who wore orange life jackets identical to mine. The only difference was that theirs had been wet, because the jackets had been used many times to rescue residents.
Threading our way through emerging fog, we arrived at the Zhongye Future City residential community. But we couldn't see the buildings' first floors at all, only some residents standing on second-floor balconies.
They shouted out and waved their hands. "We are here! Please help us!"
The rescuers drove the boat to a balcony where there was a toddler, huddled in her mother's arms.
"Don't rush. We will take you to the boat one by one. Elders, women and babies first!"
Then a mother in her 30s lifted her 2-year-old girl over a fence outside the balcony, and a rescuer on the boat took her in his arms.
The baby cried and called out for her mommy.
"It's all right baby. Your mommy is coming," the rescuer said gently. He was from Tianjin Bluesky Rescue Team. He was thin and dressed in a black driving suit, which was soaked.
After the baby, her mother and father, her grandmother and another couple were taken over the fence to the boat.
Altogether, 10 people were in the small boat — two rescuers at the bow and one at the stern. I was in the middle as we started to go back.
But the fog had shrouded the place heavily. No other boats could be seen, nor any buildings at a distance.
"Keep blowing your whistle and use your flashlight to avoid a collision or capsizing," the driver behind me told another rescuer at the front.
I could see the whole picture — people huddling together, staring at each other in silence, and I heard the whistle and saw the flashlight, all in heavy fog.
It was all strangely familiar and surreal, like the end of the movie Titanic when Rose lay on a board, whistling with her last strength as rescuers with flashlights sought survivors.
But we were not in a film. This was reality.
On the way back, I was in a somber mood, not like interviews with people about their experiences or feelings. All I wanted was to go back, and as soon as possible.
While I wanted to get away from the dreadful flood scene, boats continued coming toward us. As each one passed, rescuers on our boat would shout out to them:
"Hey, take care, the fog is heavier along your way."
"Ok, No problem," came the reply each time.
Except for the shouting, rescuers on the boats would also gave a thumbs-up to each other, a gesture of encouragement and a reminder to slow down when meeting boats.
It seemed a long time had passed, but it was only 30 minutes or so, and I finally saw the starting point where a crowd of people were busy. They were unloading residents or reporters were recording the moments.
When we arrived at a docking place, a strong rescuer took the baby tenderly. This time the girl didn't cry. It was only a moment and she was back in her mother's arms. Then the family of four walked away. They told me they would live in a friend's house for a period of time.
After seeing them off, I looked back and saw three new rescuers already on the boat and preparing to start off again. Night had fallen.
I turned back and walked along a street where a great number of rescue vehicles were parked. They were laden with equipment and necessities.
I saw a truck's front covered with a red cloth upon which was written a sentence: When one place is in trouble, help will come from all around. It was signed by a rescue team from Yuncheng county in Shandong province.
As of Wednesday, North China's Hebei province has detained about 1.8 billion cubic meters of floodwater after it put into use seven flood detention areas in the past few days, according to the emergency management department of Hebei province.
To prevent flooding disasters in flood-prone areas, more than 850,000 residents surrounding the detention reservoirs including Xiaoqing River, Langouwa and Dongdian, have been relocated to safe areas, the department said, adding that another 370,000 people have also been evacuated from other regions.
The province had been hit by heavy rainfalls for about 144 hours since Thursday (July 27) and the rain stopped on Wednesday.
During that period, the province's average rainfall reached 146.2 millimeters, amounting to about 27.5 billion cubic meters of water, which is equivalent to more than twice the total storage capacity of large and medium-sized reservoirs in the whole province, chinanews.com reported.
"The flood detention reservoirs that we used turned out to be effective," Li Na, deputy head of the Department of Water Resources of Hebei Province, said in a television interview for China Media Group on Wednesday night.
In particular, two detention reservoirs near Zhuozhou city have played an important role in the Daqing River flood control engineering system.
According to Li, the floodwaters run through a series of reservoirs and rivers, starting from the Baigo River and Nanjuma River and ending in the Bohai Sea via Tianjin's Duliujian River.
"If not for the two areas alleviating floodwaters, the pressure on downstream flood control in Xiong'an and Tianjin would be very heavy," she said, adding that the use of flood detention reservoirs has played a substantial role in supporting and guaranteeing flood control for downstream rivers and other important areas.
Since the rain stopped, the water level in the river bodies has started to drop and thus the amount of water in the flood detention reservoirs will gradually reduce at various paces depending on location and size, she added.
Some villages located above the reservoirs will see the waterline receding within about a week, while some others may need a month, Li said.
