CHINA’S CAPITAL HAS recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days.
The city recorded 744.8 millimetres (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and this morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said today.
The amount of rain recorded in just 40 hours neared the average rainfall for the entire month of July.
The record rainfall comes as northern China has been deluged with heavy rains as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri moved north after earlier hitting southern Chinese provinces.
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 974,400 people have been evacuated in the capital and neighbouring Hebei province.
And to the west, a further 42,211 people have been evacuated in Shanxi province.
The rains destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water.
Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei province.
Last night, police issued a plea on social media site Weibo for lights to assist with rescue work.
It is unknown how many people are trapped in flood-stricken areas in the city and surrounding villages.
Waters in Gu’an county in Hebei, which borders Zhuozhou, were high today, covering half up a pole where a surveillance camera was installed.
Millions of people have been hit by extreme weather events and prolonged heat waves around the globe in recent weeks – events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.
With rainfall easing, the focus has moved to the relief operation, with hundreds of rescue workers from the Chinese Red Cross being sent to hard-hit areas to clean up debris and help evacuate victims, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Two of the 11 people killed in the rains in Beijing died while “on duty during rescue and relief”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Thirteen people were still missing, but another 14 have been found safe, the broadcaster said.
In neighbouring Hebei province, nine people were killed and six were missing, it said.
Another two casualties were reported in northeastern Liaoning province over the weekend.
President Xi Jinping yesterday called for “every effort” to rescue those “lost or trapped” by the storm.
And visiting a relief work site 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 the time to search for the people missing or trapped and minimise casualties,” Zhang said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Chinese authorities said the torrential rains around Beijing had caused at least 20 deaths and 27 people are missing.
The previous record for rainfall was in 1891, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said on its official Weibo account today, when the city saw 609 millimetres (24 inches) of rain.
The earliest precise recordings made by machines are from 1883.
Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in nearby cities.
The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise.
Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year.
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