News / China

87 killed, millions evacuated as heavy rain batters China

Saturday, 23 July 2016 9:31 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 23 July 2016 9:31 AM ]

A vehicle is seen passing a flooded street in Handan, Hebei Province, China, July 20, 2016. ©Reuters

Heavy torrential downpours have triggered floods and landslides in China, leaving at least 87 people dead and forcing 16 million citizens from their houses.

Citing the civil affairs department, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday that 72 people have been killed, while 78 others are missing in the northern province of Hebei.

Almost 50,000 homes have collapsed while some 8.6 million people have been affected, the report added.

Elsewhere, in the central province of Henan, the rain has claimed the lives of 15 people and left eight others missing.

Thunderstorms and winds in Henan have also forced 7.2 million Chinese nationals from their homes and damaged 18,000 dwellings.

This summer, large parts of China have been inundated with torrential rain, killing over 200 people.

The government has said more than 1.5 million hectares of crops have been damaged, causing economic losses of more than 20 billion of Chinese yuan (USD 3 billion).

Flooding is not uncommon during the summer monsoon season in northern China, but rains this summer have been heavy throughout the Asian country.

Commuters wade through water after getting off a bus in a flooded street in Beijing, China, July 20, 2016. ©AFP

The country’s worst flooding in recent history happened in 1998, when at least 4,150 people lost their lives, most of them along Yangtze River.

In recent days, however, water levels in some of China's major rivers have exceeded those recorded during the 1998 floods, prompting the Beijing city government issued an orange alert, the second highest alert in the country.

Locals slam Beijing’s handling of flood

Media and internet users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the government’s response to the disaster, accusing officials of negligence.

Villagers blamed local officials for failing to warn them of the impending deluge.

“Not to notify villagers about the Xingtai flood wasn’t just an abandonment of the officials’ duty -- it was essentially manslaughter,” wrote a user of China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog on Saturday.

Photos showed homes collapsed, telephone poles toppled and debris submerged in a tide of brown mud in the aftermath of the downpours in China.

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