A record deluge in China’s central Henan province has claimed 51 lives, authorities said Friday, as millions of residents were impacted by the heavy downpours.
As of noon Friday, over 395,000 people have been evacuated, and the flooding has caused losses of more than 65 billion yuan ($10 billion), said a statement from the storm-hit city of Zhengzhou.
Villagers were evacuated over makeshift bridges Friday as floods submerged swathes of central China following a historic deluge which claimed at least 51 lives — while an approaching typhoon threatened to dump more rain on the stricken area.
Millions have been affected by the floods in Henan province, which have trapped people for days without fresh food or water, and pulverised roads as they breached embankments, caking whole areas in thick ankle-deep mud.
The death toll is expected to rise, and adding to the misery, Typhoon In-Fa is forecast to bring further torrential downpours to parts of Henan in the coming days, state media said.
In the worst-hit city of Zhengzhou, firefighters Friday continued to pump muddy water from tunnels, including from a subway where at least a dozen people drowned inside a train earlier in the week as a year’s worth of rainfall fell in just three days.
A digger carried people in its scoop across still-flooded streets as the retreating water left behind a thick treacle of mud in other parts of the city.
Overnight, heavy rain saw floods surge northwards to the city of Xinxiang and surrounding areas, where vast areas of farmland were inundated and the town cut off as the Wei River burst its banks.
In flooded Xinxiang, AFP saw local residents wading through water that reached waist-height, staggering cautiously and holding dogs, bicycles and bags of possessions.
Rescuers in life jackets helped some to safety using rubber dinghies and floats, with several elderly people in wheelchairs lifted through the flooded streets of shuttered shops.
Aerial footage showed rescuers using temporary bridges to move hundreds of residents to safety, with tree tops poking above the water the only sign of land for miles.
Liang Long, an employee at a hotel in a city neighboring Xinxiang, told AFP hundreds had arrived seeking refuge since Thursday afternoon and through the night.
“Their villages have been flattened with nothing left,” he said.
The hotel, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the worst-hit areas, was still receiving “continuous” calls for help, Liang added.
“There are many people and our hotel’s food is running low,” he said.
More than 395,000 people have been evacuated, and the flooding has caused losses of more than $10 billion, said a statement from Zhengzhou authorities on Friday.
Videos shared over social media have provided a window into the destructive power of the floods, which tossed cars into piles and sucked pedestrians towards storm drains.
Harrowing footage from rush-hour passengers trapped inside the subway, where waters rose from ankle to neck height, pinballed across China’s Twitter-like Weibo as people questioned why the underground network had been allowed to operate during an unprecedented storm. – with Laurie Chen with Ludo Ehret in Xinxiang/Agence France-Presse
