20 Dead in floods in China

At least 20 people were dead and 27 were reported missing as a result of severe rain in the Beijing region, according to the government's report on Tuesday. Flooding also caused roads to be wrecked, trees to be uprooted, and electricity to be lost.

Numerous thousands of people were relocated to shelters in Tianjin and Zhuozhou, two surrounding cities, as well as schools and other public facilities in suburban Beijing.

The Chinese capital was shocked by the extent of the water. Beijing typically has dry summers, but this year there was a period of extreme heat.

Numerous people have died as a result of extremely severe summer floods in other regions, particularly the south of China. Other regions of the nation are experiencing drought.

Muddy water surging down streets washed away cars in the Mentougou district on Beijing's western edge.

“The cars parked on the street floated and got washed away," said a resident, Liu Shuanbao. "A couple of cars parked behind my apartment building disappeared in just one minute.”

Emergency workers used bulldozers on Tuesday to clear streets while residents waded through mud.

“Neither officials nor ordinary people expected the rain to be so heavy," said another Mentougou resident, Wu Changpo. "There were a lot of landslides and flooded villages. I cried repeatedly seeing these reports.”

Eleven deaths were reported in Beijing and authorities were looking for 27 missing people, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Nine deaths were reported in Hebei province, which surrounds the capital.

Power to some 60,000 homes in the capital's Fangshan district was knocked out, Phoenix TV reported on its website.

In Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, some 125,000 people from high-risk areas were moved to shelters, Xinhua said.

President Xi Jinping issued an order for local governments to go “all out” to rescue those trapped and minimize loss of life and property damage.

The government of Tianjin, a port east of Beijing, said 35,000 people were evacuated from near the swollen Yongding River.

As much as 500 millimeters (almost 20 inches) of rain has fallen in some places since Saturday, according to the Hebei province weather agency. Some areas reported as much as 90 millimeters (3 1/2 inches) of rainfall per hour.

Some 13 rivers exceeded warning levels in the Haihe Basin, which includes Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, Xinhua said, citing the Ministry of Water Resources.

About 42,000 people were evacuated from areas of Shanxi province to Hebei's west, it reported, citing emergency officials.

Early in July, floods in Chongqing's southwest area claimed the lives of at least 15 people, while Liaoning's far northwest province, which is home to 5,590 people, required an evacuation. Residents in the Hubei province in central China were confined to their houses and cars by downpours.

In 1998, China saw its worst and most damaging floods in recent memory, killing 4,150 people, the majority of whom were located around the Yangtze River.

In the central province of Henan in 2021, floods claimed the lives of almost 300 individuals. On July 20 of that year, a record amount of rain swamped the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, turning the streets into raging rivers and drowning at least a portion of a subway line.