Severe flooding triggered by days of extreme rainfall in northern China has claimed at least 60 lives, with over half of the fatalities reported at a care home for the elderly in a Beijing suburb — the capital’s deadliest flood disaster in years.
Beijing’s Deputy Mayor Xia Linmao confirmed at a press conference on Thursday that 44 people have died in the city over the past week. At least 31 others remain missing across Beijing and neighboring Hebei province.
The torrential rains, which began a week ago and peaked on Monday, battered Beijing and surrounding regions. In the hilly Miyun district in northeast Beijing, rainfall reached up to 573.5 millimeters (22.6 inches), nearly equaling the city’s annual average precipitation of around 600 mm.
Among the worst-hit areas was a nursing home in Taishitun, a town in Miyun located just upstream from the Miyun Reservoir. Floodwaters overwhelmed the facility, killing 31 of its residents. Miyun’s Communist Party Secretary Yu Weiguo said authorities were alerted early Monday that people were trapped, but rapidly rising waters hampered rescue efforts.
“The town center where the nursing home was located had been safe for a long time, and was not included in the relocation plan,” Yu said, acknowledging flaws in the city’s emergency planning. “This showed that our contingency plan had flaws, and our understanding of extreme weather was inadequate,” he added, visibly emotional during the briefing.
At the time of the flood, 69 elderly people were housed at the nursing home, 55 of whom had physical impairments. It remains unclear whether any staff members were among the deceased.
The Miyun Reservoir, the largest in northern China, reached record water levels during the rainfall, inundating nearby towns. The Qingshui River — normally a narrow stream — surged to 1,500 times its usual flow on Monday morning, according to Yu. Beijing Water Authority head Liu Bin added that the river’s peak flow was 2.3 times greater than a record set over a century ago.
In total, more than 300,000 people have been affected by the flooding in Beijing. Preliminary damage assessments show destruction to over 24,000 homes, 242 bridges, and 756 kilometers (470 miles) of roads, according to Deputy Mayor Xia.
