More than 30 dead in China’s torrential rain as record floods claim lives of municipal officials

The emergency response level in northeastern China was elevated on Sunday in response to the heavy rainfall caused by Typhoon Doksuri, which led to the flooding of a crucial river and is anticipated to cause the rise of tributaries.

This increase is in preparation for the anticipated significant flooding of the tributaries, the local media said.

More than 30 people have been killed in the worst rainfall to have inundated China in 140 years, according to the state newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party’s Shanghai wing, Jiefang Daily.

Of these, 11 people died in Beijing and another 10 died in the hard-hit province of Hebei’s Baoding, the report said.

Another province, Jilin, has been struck badly as six people died and four went missing in the Shulan city battered by five straight days of rainfall, the state media reports said.

State news agency Xinhua reported the recovery of the bodies of four municipal officials who were swept away by floodwaters during rescue operations in the province.

Four officials, including the deputy mayor of Shulan city in Jilin province, and three members of his team were killed on their way to assess the situation in the region on Friday, the report added.

They “encountered danger on their way to the scene of floods in Kaiyuan and Jinma townships in Shulan,” Xinhua reported.

Authorities have evacuated more than 18,900 people from the city of over 700,000, the local disaster relief agency said.

Images from the state news agency China News Service showed waterlogged streets surrounding homes and factories in the city.

By Friday afternoon, Shulan recorded an average precipitation of about 111.7 mm (4.4 inches), officials said.

After making landfall in northern China nearly 10 days ago, the typhoon has disrupted millions of lives and continued to wreak havoc in the aftermath by causing heavy rains. In this week alone, 22 people have died in Beijing and neighbouring province Hebei in flooding.

While some parts of the country continue to burn in scorching summer heat and face drought that can wipe off the crops, other parts in the northern region are reeling under record-breaking rainfall which has left several missing and dead.

China’s “great northern granary” in northeastern Heilongjiang province has seen record rains battering farms and flooding streets, forcing the evacuation of thousands.

The response level in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Inner Mongolia has been raised to Level III at 10am local time on Sunday, China’s Ministry of Water Resources said.

China has a four-tier emergency response system, with Level I being the most urgent.

At least 25 rivers across Heilongjiang are expected to burst their banks, the national emergency management authorities have warned as disaster relief groups have been sent to the province.

Over 53,000 individuals from the provincial capital Harbin have been evacuated due to multiple reservoirs and rivers surpassing safety levels. The heavy rains have damaged some 41,600 hectares (103,000 acres) of crops.

In the wake of widespread destruction, the Xi Jinping administration has allocated an additional 350m yuan (£38.2m) to support rescues and house repairs in the flood-hit regions including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin.