Extreme rains and flooding across northern China have claimed the lives of 60 people, with over half of the fatalities occurring at a care home for the elderly in a Beijing suburb, marking the city’s deadliest flood disaster in years.
Beijing’s deputy mayor, Xia Linmao, stated at a Thursday press conference that 44 people have died in the capital over the past week. Authorities also reported at least 31 others missing in Beijing and the neighbouring Hebei province.
The torrential rains began a week ago and peaked around Beijing and surrounding provinces on Monday. In just a few days, the hilly Miyun district in northeast Beijing recorded rainfall up to 573.5 mm (22.6 inches), nearly matching the city’s average annual precipitation of around 600 mm.
Thirty-one people died at a nursing home in Taishitun, a town in Miyun located immediately upstream from the Miyun reservoir, about a 90-minute drive from central Beijing. Officials were alerted early Monday about residents trapped in the facility, but rescue efforts were hindered by rapidly rising floodwaters, according to Miyun’s top official, Yu Weiguo.
Yu acknowledged the disaster exposed gaps in the city’s contingency planning, noting, “The town centre where the nursing home was located had been safe for a long time, and was not included in the relocation plan.” He added, “This showed that our contingency plan had flaws, and our understanding of extreme weather was inadequate,” becoming visibly emotional during the briefing.
At the time of the floods, 69 elderly residents were at the nursing home, 55 of whom had some form of functional impairment. It remains unclear if any staff members were among the casualties.
The Miyun reservoir is the largest in northern China reached record-breaking water levels during the rains, devastating nearby towns. The Qingshui River, which flows through Taishitun into the reservoir and is normally a small stream, surged to 1,500 times its usual volume on Monday morning when the disaster struck, Yu said. Beijing’s water authority chief, Liu Bin, added the river’s peak flow was 2.3 times the previous record set over a century ago.
In total, more than 300,000 people have been affected by the rains and flooding in Beijing. Preliminary figures from deputy mayor Xia show damage to more than 24,000 homes, 242 bridges, and 756 kilometres (470 miles) of roads.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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