Recent Beijing rain heaviest since records began 140 years ago: Weather service

BEIJING – Deadly rain that pummelled China’s capital in recent days was the heaviest since records began 140 years ago, Beijing’s weather service said on Wednesday, as a massive cleanup operation began.

Millions of people have been hit by extreme weather events and prolonged heatwaves around the globe in recent weeks – events that scientists say are exacerbated by climate change.

The Beijing Meteorological Service said the Chinese capital has just experienced the “heaviest rainfall in 140 years”, which is as long as the city’s authorities have kept records of the weather.

“The maximum value of rainfall recorded during this storm, 744.8mm, occurred at the Wangjiayuan Reservoir in Changping,” the service said, adding that the largest volume previously recorded was 609mm in 1891.

The rainstorms that hit Beijing and neighbouring Hebei province have

claimed at least 20 lives

.

The epicentre of flooding shifted to Hebei on Wednesday.

In Beijing’s Fangshan district – on the border between the capital and Hebei – an AFP team saw a park that had been completely flooded, with tonnes of rubbish that had been washed away by torrential rain stuck near a bridge.

The area was “extremely dangerous” on Tuesday, a police officer said.

Journalists also saw a military vehicle with caterpillar wheels on its way back from the worst-affected areas.

And AFP saw an ambulance, a rescue boat and a police car heading to Zhuozhou, a hard-hit district of Hebei.

State media footage showed rescuers rowing inflatable rafts through waterlogged neighbourhoods, while residents awaiting help clung to construction scaffolding.

Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, swept northwards over China after hitting southern Fujian province last week, following its

battering of the Philippines.

Heavy rain began pummelling the typically dry Chinese capital and surrounding areas on Saturday, with nearly the average rainfall for the entire month of July dumped on Beijing in just 40 hours.

State media warned last week that 130 million people would be affected by the extremely heavy rainfall across northern China.

Swathes of suburban Beijing and the surrounding areas have been inundated, with state media reporting that 974,400 people in the capital and neighbouring Hebei province have been evacuated.

About 40 flights were cancelled and at least three trains were stalled on railway lines, trapping passengers on board. 

Military helicopters were activated on Tuesday morning

to deliver supplies to the stranded train passengers, who said they had been trapped for at least 30 hours and had run out of food and water.

A further 42,211 people have been evacuated in Shanxi province.

The authorities in the capital lifted the red alert for flooding on Wednesday morning “as the water flow in major rivers has gone below the warning mark”, Xinhua reported.

Clean-up drive

With rainfall easing, the focus has moved to the relief operation, with hundreds of rescue workers from the Chinese Red Cross sent to hard-hit areas to clean up debris and help evacuate victims, Xinhua reported.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for “every effort” to rescue those “lost or trapped” by the storm.

And visiting a relief worksite in Beijing’s Mentougou – one of the capital’s hardest-hit areas – Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing urged “all-out” efforts to rescue those still missing.

“The top priority of the current work is to save people’s lives, race against time to search for the people missing or trapped and minimise casualties,” Mr Zhang said, according to Xinhua.

The country is now on alert for the arrival of Typhoon Khanun, the sixth such storm of the year, as it nears China’s east coast. AFP