A typhoon hit North China, leaving over 20 dead, 19 missing. Evacuations and relief efforts underway as authorities repair infrastructure and support affected communities.
At least 20 people were killed, and 19 were missing after heavy rains lashed Beijing and surrounding provinces, state media said Tuesday, in downpours that have submerged roads and deluged neighborhoods with mud.
Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, swept northwards over China after hitting southern Fujian province on Friday, following its battering of the Philippines.
Heavy rains began battering the capital and surrounding areas on Saturday, with nearly the average rainfall for the entire month of July dumped on Beijing in just 40 hours.
Swaths of suburban Beijing remain badly hit by the rains, some of the city’s heaviest in years.
On the banks of the Mentougou River, one of the worst affected areas.
President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for “every effort” to rescue those “lost or trapped” by the rains.
More than 100,000 people deemed at risk across Beijing have been evacuated, according to the state-owned Global Times newspaper.
CCTV said that authorities have allocated 110 million yuan ($15.4 million) for disaster relief work in the capital and surrounding provinces.
Local media on Monday published footage of chaotic scenes aboard high-speed rail trains stranded on tracks for as long as 30 hours, with passengers complaining that they had run out of food and water.
Authorities “must properly relocate affected people, work quickly to repair damaged transportation, communication, and electricity infrastructure, and restore the order of normal production and life as soon as possible,” Xi said on Tuesday.
The capital activated a flood control reservoir on Monday for the first time since it was built in 1998, the Beijing Daily said.
China has been experiencing extreme weather and posting record temperatures this summer, which scientists say are exacerbated by climate change.
The country is already preparing for the arrival of typhoon Khanun, the sixth storm of the year, as it nears China’s east coast.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
