The torrential rains that have been hitting northern China for a week have left at least ten additional dead and eighteen missing in Hebei province, bordering Beijing, on Saturday August 5, according to the authorities. This provisional assessment made at midday was communicated by officials in Baoding, one of the hardest hit cities, located about 150 kilometers from the Chinese capital. This announcement brings to more than thirty the number of deaths since the beginning of the week in the region.
Typhoon Doksuri, downgraded to a storm this week after hitting the Philippines, swept through parts of China with torrential rains. They caused major flooding and caused considerable damage.
Thanks to a lull on the weather front, clean-up operations are continuing after the “biggest rainfall in 140 years”according to the meteorological services, which destroyed infrastructure and flooded entire neighborhoods.
Saturday at noon (6 a.m. in Paris), more than 600,000 Baoding residents in areas deemed to be at risk had been evacuated, according to the town hall. More than one million people out of the 11.5 million inhabitants of this city are affected by these bad weather.
The situation is also critical in Zhuozhou, whose entire neighborhoods are drowned under the waves. Spectacular aerial photos of the city, taken by Agence France-Presse on Wednesday, show streets transformed into brown-water rivers. Others show submerged farmland for miles.
Authorities announced on Friday that natural disasters left 147 people dead and missing in July across the country. Last month, the Beijing region had reached unprecedented heat levels with locally over 40°C.
Scientists point out that these meteorological phenomena are exacerbated by climate change.