Typhoon Doksuri leaves 2 dead in Beijing as city issues red alert for flooding

BEIJING – Two bodies were pulled from Beijing’s flooded waterways on Monday as heavy rain battered the Chinese capital, state media reported.

“During an emergency patrol round this morning, two people were discovered in waterways,” the state-run People’s Daily reported, adding that “at the time of discovery, both had no vital signs”.

Large parts of the suburbs were “at high risk of collapses, landslides and mudslides”, a notice from the authorities said as they issued a rare red alert for flooding, its highest alert level.

Typhoon Doksuri is one of the strongest storms to hit China in years and caused widespread flooding over the weekend in the southern province of Fujian,

driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

It had scythed through the Philippines earlier.

More than 31,000 people were evacuated from their homes, work at more than 4,000 construction sites was halted, almost 20,000 buildings were inspected for damage, and scenic spots in the city were closed, media reported.

Both airports in the capital cancelled more than 180 flights on Monday morning, with hundreds more delayed, according to flight tracking app Flight Master.

The railway authorities dispatched workers to send food – including instant noodles, eggs and ham, and drinking water – to train passengers who were stuck overnight.

Hundreds of bus services in the capital were suspended, according to state news agency Xinhua, while the city government issued the highest flood warning for the suburban Dashihe River.

Ms Chen Hong, a resident of the southern Fengtai district, shared footage with AFP that showed a parked van half-submerged in fast-flowing brown water on Monday morning as the rain continued to fall.

Residents in her neighbourhood cleared mud outside their homes with shovels during a brief respite from the near-continuous downpour.

“Once it starts raining, the road turns into a drain, and there’s water on the first floor inside houses,” said Ms Chen, 52.

“The houses here are all old... so there are definitely concerns about safety,” she added.

A section of road surface in the outer Fangshan district caved in under rising water, local media reported.

Social media users uploaded footage of vehicles swept away by muddy torrents and thoroughfares turned into rapids on the outskirts of the city.

In one clip posted on Monday on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu platform and geolocated by AFP, murky water can be seen swamping a large intersection in the outer Mentougou district next to high-rise apartment blocks.

In another Xiaohongshu video on Sunday, rainwater appeared to leak onto a subway platform in western Beijing’s university district.

Extreme weather

The streets of central Beijing were quieter than usual on Monday morning as residents heeded official recommendations to work from home, with only a handful of delivery riders braving pools of water seen in usually packed motorbike lanes.

China has been experiencing extreme weather conditions and

posting record temperatures this summer,

events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

Experts have warned that the ongoing downpour could prompt even worse flooding than in July 2012, when 79 people died and tens of thousands were evacuated, according to local media.

An average of 170.9mm of rain inundated Beijing in 40 hours between Saturday night and noon on Monday, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said.

This is nearly equivalent to the average rainfall for the entire month of July, according to official records.

Heavy rain continued to soak Hebei, Tianjin and eastern Shanxi as Doksuri dissipated over northern China, the China Meteorological Administration said.

There was no reported damage or casualties, state media said, but in the south of Beijing, Doksuri’s impact was more pronounced.

In northern Hebei province, a driver was missing after two trucks fell off a collapsed bridge in Baoding city on Sunday, while a section of a railway bridge for freight in Shijiazhuang city was washed away in a swollen river, media reported.

While Doksuri continues to taper off, forecasters

warn that Typhoon Khanun is approaching

and is set to strike China’s densely populated coast this week.

The authorities said Khanun could inflict further damage to corn and other crops that have already been hit by Doksuri.

AFP, REUTERS