At least 44 people died in Beijing after heavy rains from Jul 23 to 29. Most of the dead were people unexpectedly trapped by rapidly rising waters at a nursing home in Miyun district on the city’s northeastern outskirts.
The fatalities led authorities to admit to shortcomings in their contingency plans for extreme weather.
By noon on Monday, Beijing had placed all of its 16 districts on the highest level of preparedness, in the first citywide state of readiness since Jul 28, shutting parts of the Great Wall and other outdoor leisure venues and halting operations of below-ground businesses.
The risk of flash floods and landslides is “extremely high”, authorities said.
By 2pm, the capital had relocated more than 70,000 residents – nearly 14,000 of them from the hilly Mentougou district in the city’s west, the state broadcaster reported.
In the summer of 2012, 79 people died in Beijing in the city’s deadliest flooding in living memory. Fangshan district was the worst-hit, with one resident reporting a rise in floodwaters of 1.3m in just 10 minutes.
Beijing’s topography has been described by some as a rain “trap”, with its mountains to the west and north capturing moist air and amplifying any ensuing rainfall as a result.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/beijing-expands-storm-alert-floods-heavy-rainfall-5275671
