China continues to suffer from extreme rainstorms and disasters, as floods claimed the lives of 29 people in the Hebei Province, as per Chinese local media reports. The floods have caused heavy losses estimated around 95.811 billion Yuan in the region, while 16 people are still missing.
The provincial authorities on Friday expressed condolences to the victims of the heavy floods and their families and said that at least 2,237 road sections and 1,723 10kV power lines were damaged due to the rains as of Thursday.
Zhang Chengzhong, executive vice governor of the Hebei province, said that the flood situation has worsened due to continued high-intensity rainstorms. China's ministries of finance and emergency management have directed an urgent allocation of 1.46 billion Yuan in disaster prevention and relief on Friday.
The latest funding is aimed to aid five provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The Finance Ministry has so far allocated 7.738 billion yuan for flood control and relief since the rains began.
Meanwhile, officials are on high alert to rescue victims of the extensive floodings, with more than 1.75 people being transferred across the Hubei province, including 978,400 people in flood-affected areas. Local officials said that the post-disaster reconstruction work will be given high priority and will be completed within two years before the 2025 flood season.
Additionally, authorities have promised to ensure that every affected student is able to return to school before September 1 and that residents can move into new homes before the winter season commences.
Hebei province is located just outside Beijing and has seen some of the region's worst flooding. Floodwaters in Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, started to recede Saturday, allowing some of the 125,000 evacuated residents to return to their homes.
Heavy rains have battered northern China since late July, disrupting the lives of millions.
Earlier, 33 people were killed, including five rescuers, in Beijing due to the foods. According to the officials, the latest disaster remains threatened by unusually heavy rainfall. Days of heavy rain hit areas in the city's mountainous western outskirts especially hard, causing the collapse of 59,000 homes, damage to almost 150,000 others and flooding of more than 15,000 hectares of cropland.
However, other areas are suffering from the scorching summer heat and drought, threatening residents' heath and the autumn harvest.
China's deadliest and most destructive floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River. In 2021, more than 300 people died in the central province of Henan. Record rainfall inundated the provincial capital of Zhengzhou on July 20 that year, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line.
(with ANI inputs)
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