China flooding: Military blasts dam to divert flood water amid rescue for 1.2 million displaced
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China’s military has blasted a dam to release floodwaters threatening one of its most heavily populated provinces, as the death toll in widespread flooding rose to at least 25.
The dam operation, in the city of Luoyang, was carried out just as the heaviest rain in a millennium overwhelmed Henan’s provincial capital, Zhengzhou, trapping residents in the underground system and stranding them at schools, apartments and offices.
Another seven people were reported missing, officials said.
A video showed underground passengers standing in chest-high muddy brown water as torrents raged in the tunnel outside.
Rain turned streets into rapidly flowing rivers, washed away cars and flooded homes.
A blackout shut down ventilators at a hospital, forcing staff to use hand-pumped airbags to help patients breathe, according to the city’s Communist Party committee.
The flooding happened just as China came under pressure from US climate envoy John Kerry, who called on the country’s leaders to intensify their action to curb the climate crisis.
Without sufficient emissions reductions by China, Mr Kerry said, the global goal of keeping temperatures under 1.5C was “essentially impossible”.
Death toll rises to 25
The flood death toll in central China has risen to 25, provincial officials have confirmed.
They added that a further seven people have been reported missing.
Video: People stranded in floods rescued by dinghy
Footage shows people being rescued from the floods by dinghy:
Watch: People stranded in deadly China floods rescued by dinghy
Frightening footage shows floodwater gushing into subway stations, trapping train passengers in chest-high water and submerging streets. Rescuers are seen carrying stranded people to safety in dinghies and trying to free vehicles from roads that have been transformed into torrents. Massive floods caused by record-breaking rainfall have left at least 12 people dead and 100,000 evacuated from their homes in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province. Some meteorologists estimate the rain in the city was the worst in 1,000 years, Reuters news agency reported.
Flooding in pictures
Woman saved in dramatic rescue
Watch: Woman pulled out of raging China flood by rope in dramatic rescue
Shocking footage shows the moment a woman was narrowly saved from dangerous floodwater in China’s Zhengzhou. The woman can be seen be seen clinging onto a rope held by several men as the raging torrent engulfs her. She disappears under the water but manages to hold on and is towed to calmer waters.The video also shows a sinkhole with water gushing in. As pieces of road collapse around it, several people are sucked into the deep hole.Massive floods caused by record-breaking rainfall have left at least 12 people dead and 100,000 evacuated in the capital of central China’s Henan province.
Ambassador expresses solidarity with Zhengzhou
Here’s a tweet from the Chinese ambassador in Austria on the situation in his home country:
Emergency response level raised
Chinese authorities have raised the emergency response for flood control to level two, the second-highest level, according to the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.
The Ministry of Emergency Management has dispatched a working team to the affected areas in Henan to help local authorities with disaster relief work, it said.
Zhengzhou sees record rainfall
More rain fell in Zhengzhou on Tuesday than on any other recorded day.
Almost a third of the city’s annual precipitation came in just one hour.
Twelve dead after subway tunnel flooded
Twelve people died and hundreds were rescued after an underground station was flooded in Zhengzhou, Chinese state media has said.
“The water reached my chest,” a survivor wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.”
One resident, whose surname is Guo, said many people took the underground because the rain had halted bus services.
“That’s why many people took the subway, and the tragedy happened,” they told Reuters.
1.24 million people in Henan province affected by flooding
More than 1.2 million people in China’s Henan province have been affected by this week’s flooding, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The death toll currently stands at 25, with a further 7 people missing, authorities have said.
Across Henan, roughly 164,710 people have been evacuated from their homes, they added.
Panic buying in Zhengzhou
After their city was devastated by floods, residents in Zhengzhou flocked to supermarkets in large numbers to buy food and other provisions to tide themselves over.
As a result, many items sold out, leaving empty shelves.
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