At least 17 dead and 17 missing as flash flood hits China’s northwest
- So far, 20 people have been rescued as Datong county in Qinghai province issues level 2 alarm in response to torrential rain that began on Wednesday
- In southern China, heatwaves and drought have caused power shortages and disrupted production
At least 17 people have died and another 17 are missing after a flash flood in China’s northwestern province of Qinghai, the local government said on Thursday.
The disaster occurred early on Thursday morning in Datong county of the provincial capital Xining, the province’s emergency office said in a brief statement.
It said the office had issued a level 2 alarm over the disaster, without giving further details. China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with level 1 being the most severe.
Some 6,245 people from six villages in two townships were affected, according to an announcement by the local government on Chinese microblogging site, Weibo.
The local government has set up a forward command post and mobilised more than 2,000 police, public security, emergency response and health workers and other personnel and rural cadres, and more than 160 vehicles, to aid rescues.
So far, 20 people have been rescued and rescue operations are continuing, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.
A statement by the Xining disaster relief office said the area was affected by torrential rain that began on Wednesday.
In one hour around midnight on Wednesday, 40.6 millimetres (1.6 inches) of rain fell, according to the national weather bureau website.
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An undergraduate student living in Qiaotou, 30km (18.6 miles) from the flood zone, said the extreme weather was frightening.
“The rain was really heavy at midnight. There was thunder and lightning all the time. The water even entered the house through the cracks of the closed windows,” Ye Xiaoling said. “I hid in my room and was scared.”
A Weibo user with the surname Feng who lived closer to the mountain, posted about his experience. After his house was flooded at midnight on Wednesday, he and his family ran up the hill, and at 1am they saw floodwaters coming down the hill.
Feng is now a disaster relief volunteer and did not want to speak further about his experience.
“Datong county is in a river valley on the western edge of the Loess Plateau. Under such extreme rainfall, the topsoil can easily loosen and cause flash floods,” said weather and geography blogger Fengyunmengyuan, who is followed by more than 530,000 Weibo users.
In the days leading up to Sunday, the province recorded the most rainfall since the start of this year’s flood season and rainfall records have been broken in many places in the province.
On Tuesday, the local meteorological bureau issued an alert on its official website, saying the forecast heavy rain was expected to add to the deluge from days earlier.
“The magnitude of precipitation will be large, and it will overlap with the area in the heavy rainfall process from August 13 to 15. The heavy rainfall may induce secondary disasters, such as waterlogging, river floods, mountain torrents, landslides and mudslides,” the alert said.
Another alert was posted by Datong county’s meteorological bureau on Wednesday evening, warning that the risk of flash floods was high in some areas and reminding local authorities to strengthen their preparedness.
The continuous extremely heavy rainfall in Qinghai was caused by a recent strong subtropical high, according to the National Meteorological Centre.
Additional reporting by Kate Zhang
