Little warning and 'huge' losses, say China flood victims

Little warning and 'huge' losses, say China flood victims
By Ludovic EHRET
Zhuozhou, China (AFP) Aug 9, 2023

Villagers in northeastern China told AFP that the losses from recent flooding were "huge", a week after the heaviest rains Beijing has ever seen triggered widespread flooding in the region.

Zhuozhou, in Hebei, was blanketed by brown water in early August, with some reports suggesting the province shouldered the burden of a government decision to divert the deluge away from the capital.

The shells of cars and mountains of furniture caked in mud lay in front of shops in the village of Sanbuqiao, the fetid wreckage of a flood that some locals said they were not warned about in time.

"We really wished here in the village that they told us earlier," one man who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

"We were surprised."

During a visit to affected areas last week, Hebei province party chief Ni Yuefeng said that the area could "reduce the pressure on Beijing's flood control" and serve as a "moat" for the capital.

China's state media has hailed the government's efforts to mitigate damage from the inundations, with coverage focused on tales of mutual aid and selfless officials working tirelessly on rescue efforts.

But a week after the waters first swelled, some villagers said they did not receive adequate warning from the authorities about when the floods would come.

With her car washed away, along with her company's merchandise, one resident told AFP she had suffered losses of about a million yuan ($140,000).

"The water rose very quickly," said the woman, who like others asked not to be named.

"Our little house isn't very high, so it's a good thing we realised the water was rising, otherwise we might have drowned," she added.

"I had insurance for my car, but not for my goods. As for compensation, I'm waiting to find out."

- Downed power lines -

Some in the area, meanwhile, were unhappy about victims speaking to foreign press.

Before long, a man who introduced himself as "just a villager" ordered AFP journalists to leave.

"Nobody wants to talk to you here. Journalists have no right to be here if they are not sent by the government," he said.

AFP reporters experienced a similar confrontation by a self-described "ordinary citizen" in the nearby town of Matou.

Journalists do not require government permission to visit disaster zones in China.

On one roadside in Matou, six workers in a van were taking a lunch break.

"We're repairing the power lines, many of which are still down or not working," one of them said.

"I think it will take a few more days to get everything back up and running in the area."

Along the street, shops and small warehouses had been submerged under around two metres of water.

"The loss is probably very extensive," explained a man unloading debris.

"We have no idea how much. We're not from here. We just came here to help clean up."

- 'Just regular people' -

Elsewhere in Matou, employees of a car repair garage dried filters and other spare parts in the sun to be resold.

Just in front were the wrecks of their customers' cars, submerged during the floods.

Inside, employees scraped off the last traces of mud and replaced the oil and lubricant cans on the display racks.

"The losses are huge for us, of course. We had no insurance," said one employee who did not want to give his name.

"We're waiting for the government's compensation plan. But I think all this is going to be very expensive. Maybe several hundred million yuan just for the area here."

Another shopkeeper told AFP the water rose "too fast".

"In the afternoon it was still at calf level and during the night it rose to two metres high," he said.

"It was certainly difficult to warn everyone in a timely manner."

He added that he was aware of a plan to use Hebei to limit flooding in the capital.

"But was it justified or not? We're just regular people. We don't know the details of all this," he said.

"We just see the water rising, the flooding and the losses that it causes. The rest is a bit beyond us."

Seven killed in SW China floods as Beijing triples rain death toll
Beijing (AFP) Aug 9, 2023 - Seven people were killed in flash floods in southwestern China on Wednesday, as authorities in Beijing tripled the death toll from the capital's heaviest-ever rains.

China has been hit by record downpours in recent weeks, damaging infrastructure and deluging swaths of Beijing's suburbs and surrounding areas.

And in southwestern Sichuan province, flash flooding Wednesday killed seven people on Wednesday, state media reported.

The victims, who were reportedly taking pictures when the torrent struck, were tourists visiting a popular site.

In Beijing, authorities said 33 had died, including two rescue workers, in the recent bad weather in the capital, mainly by flooding and buildings collapsing -- three times the figure given by officials on Tuesday last week.

"I would like to express my deep condolences to those who died in the line of duty and the unfortunate victims," Xia Linmao, Beijing's vice-mayor, told a news conference, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Scores have died in the floods across northern China, with Beijing officials saying on Friday 147 deaths or disappearances last month were caused by natural disasters.

Of those, 142 were caused by flooding or geological disasters, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said.

Millions of people have been hit by extreme weather events and prolonged heatwaves around the globe in recent weeks, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

- Sichuan torrent -

Extreme weather has also struck in other parts of the country, with CCTV saying "local public security, fire and other departments are continuing to carry out search and rescue efforts" after the seven people were drowned in Sichuan's Longxi River.

The flash flood occurred at about 10 am near an embankment southwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, where "more than 10" people were swept away by an unexpected tide of water, state media said.

Video shared by CCTV showed several people struggling to keep their heads above water as a powerful torrent pushed them downstream and bystanders shouted from the water's edge.

The cause of the deluge was not immediately clear.

Meteorological authorities in the nearby city of Qionglai issued a yellow warning for rain at 10:40 am on Wednesday, anticipating possible precipitation of "more than 50 mm" over the next six hours in certain parts of the administrative district.

- 'We might have drowned' -

Fifteen people were reported to have died in Hebei province, which neighbours Beijing, and 22 were missing on Saturday.

An AFP team in Hebei's Zhuozhou saw residents and workers clearing up debris and fixing damaged property on Wednesday, more than a week after rain started pummelling the region.

"With my car that was washed away, the merchandise from my company and everything else, we've lost around a million yuan ($140,000)," said a female villager who declined to give her name.

"Our little house isn't very high, so it's a good thing we realised the water was rising, otherwise we might have drowned," she said, adding she was waiting to hear about compensation.

Fourteen died and one person was reported missing in northeastern Jilinon Sunday.

Further north in Heilongjiang, state media reported dozens of rivers had water levels rise above "warning markers" in recent days.

"I still feel scared when I recall the recent flooding," Zheng Xiaokang, a police officer from the province's Jiangxi village, told the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

"In the face of the persistent downpour and rising river water, the consequences would have been devastating had we not managed to timely evacuate the villagers," Zheng said.