Aerial view of vehicles stranded in floodwater on 20 July 2021 after record rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. Photo: Jiao Xiaoxiang / VCG / Getty Images
Aerial view of vehicles stranded in floodwater on 20 July 2021 after record rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. Photo: Jiao Xiaoxiang / VCG / Getty Images

By Alicia Chen, Lyric Li, and Eva Dou
21 July 2021

(The Washington Post) – Wang Peng rushed to join flood rescue efforts in Zhengzhou on Wednesday, as the central Chinese city was inundated with record rain. But his group of volunteers found themselves overwhelmed, with streets turned into rivers.

“Once I got to the scene, I couldn’t help anyone,” said Wang, a 34-year-old logistics manager. “The water was too deep.”

Wang and other volunteers recounted scenes of devastation in Zhengzhou on Wednesday, as the death toll rose to 25 and more than 1.2 million people were displaced. Videos circulating online showed residents being rescued with ropes from deep, rushing waters. Large areas of the surrounding countryside remained underwater.

The disaster was severe enough for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to issue a statement Wednesday through state media, ordering authorities to give top priority to people’s safety and property. More than 17,000 firefighters were mobilized for rescue operations, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management, along with local volunteers and personnel from other provinces.

At least 25 people have died in severe flooding in central China caused by what weather forecasters said was the heaviest rain in a millennium. Rainfall over the past three days was almost on par with the city’s annual average. Twenty centimetres pelted down in just one hour on Tuesday in Zhengzhou, the local capital of Henan province. Large swaths of Henan, China’s bread basket, remained under water on Wednesday as authorities evacuated about 100,000 people to safe zones, according to state media. “Flood-prevention efforts have become very difficult,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in a statement broadcast on state television. Video: The Telegraph

“The water outside is already up to here,” radio host Ding Xiaopei said in a quavering voice, pointing to chest-high water outside her subway window, in a widely shared smartphone video clip. “My smartphone is running out of batteries. I don’t know if this is my last WeChat post.”

Ding, a mother of two, was rescued Tuesday night after being trapped in the subway train for over three hours, according to Jiemian, a Shanghai-based financial news outlet.

Late on Tuesday, Chinese authorities breached a dam in the city of Luoyang to release floodwaters and lessen the pressure on the flood-hit region, according to the Associated Press.

Reuters reported that several Chinese companies rushed to make donations to the flood aid, totaling up to $300 million for the stricken region. […]

Yuan Yanling, who lives in a village outside Zhengzhou, said peanut fields were submerged, and farmers feared they may not be able to recover after the waters recede.

“It’s terrifying,” she said. “In some places, you can’t even see the corn anymore.”

On Tuesday, there were reports of people trapped on trains and in standstill traffic on highways. Both Zhengzhou city and Henan province activated their highest level of flood response.

The state-run People’s Daily newspaper called the rainstorm the “worst in Zhengzhou history,” with almost a year’s worth of rain falling in a single day. [more]

Rescue efforts launched after record floods in central China displace 1.2 million