Thousands Trapped in China’s Flood-Hit Areas as Rain Moves North (+Video)

Record-breaking rainstorms – which dumped a year’s worth of rain on and around the capital of Henan province, Zhengzhou, earlier this week – have since moved north, affecting outer cities and regional areas, trapping people without electricity or fresh water, including at hospitals.

On Friday afternoon state media reported the death toll had risen from 33 to 51, citing local authorities, and a financial toll of of more than 65 billion yuan (£7.3bn). More than a million people had been relocated, half of them having lost their homes, Guardian reported.

“We couldn’t evacuate in time because my elderly disabled grandma couldn’t leave the house,” one 16-year-old school student surnamed Zhang, who said their house in Gongyi was completely flooded, told AFP. “I was pretty scared I’d drown.”

Local reports suggested the city of Xinxiang, home to 5.8 million people, had been hardest hit, with more than 260mm falling in a two-hour window. State media reported the Wei river had burst its banks and flooded villages near Hebi. Local authorities pushed at least half a dozen trucks into the breach in an attempt to block it, without success.

Tens of thousands were being rescued or evacuated from villages and farmlands, some by makeshift bridges, other by inflatable boat or in the buckets of construction diggers.

“Presently, nearly 9,000 people have been safely transferred,” state broadcaster CCTV said, adding authorities were evacuating “the remaining 19,000 people.”

On Friday afternoon Henan authorities sought to emphasise a strong emergency response and the return of utilities to some neighbourhoods. They kept the death toll at 33, apparently contradicting state media, saying assessment was ongoing.

But the true scale of the disaster is not yet clear, and the press conference prompted some scepticism from residents online. Many areas of Henan remained cut off, without power, fresh water or mobile phone signal. A massive recovery effort had begun in areas where the rain has passed, including the capital Zhengzhou, where at least 12 people died when the subway system flooded.

Focus is on the entrance to a major cross-city tunnel in the city, which was completely submerged in up to 13 metres of water. More than 100 trapped cars were counted after the water was drained on Friday morning. Authorities confirmed just two bodies recovered, but a heavy police presence and reports from media on the ground suggested the toll was unlikely to stay so low.

Local media reported there were still people missing, with The Paper identifying at least 25 individuals, the youngest just 12 years old. One woman named Ms Ma said she had lost contact with her 14-year-old son and his two friends who had been playing near the tunnel.

On Chinese social media some journalists also noted there was little information yet from affected rural areas.

On Friday 29 of the region’s 30 reservoirs had overflowed, local authorities said, and 65 others were at full capacity. At least two major reservoirs near Zhengzhou were also damaged or at risk of collapse earlier this week, but authorities have refuted suggestions the dams have played a role in subverting the regular water flow.

China’s leader, president Xi Jinping, said there had been a “significant loss of life and damage to property”. Xi has not yet visited the affected areas. 

Chinese social media was also full of community support coordination, and tales of rescue. One Xinxiang resident described the ground floor of her house going underwater in a matter of hours, prompting her to send an SOS out on social media.

As Henan’s disaster continues, eyes are already moving to China’s east coast and an approaching typhoon. Typhoon In-fa has brought heavy rain to northern Taiwan and Japan’s southern islands, and is predicted to make landfall near Shanghai over the weekend. In-fa was credited with partly driving Henan’s rainstorm even while hundreds of kilometres to the east of Taiwan.