TAISHITUN, China (AP) — Heavy rain and flooding in northern China have killed four people while several others remain missing, officials said Monday, as the region including the capital, Beijing, braced for more rainfall overnight.
The victims were caught in a landslide in a rural part of Luanping county in Hebei province near Beijing, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Eight people were missing. A resident told the state-backed Beijing News that communications were down and he couldn't reach his relatives.
In Beijing, heavy flooding washed away cars and downed power poles in Miyun district, which borders Luanping county.
Uprooted trees lay in piles with their bare roots exposed in the town of Taishitun, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of central Beijing. Streets were covered with water, with mud left higher up on the wall.
“The flood came rushing in, just like that, so fast and suddenly. In no time at all, the place was filling up,” said Zhuang Zhelin, who was clearing mud with his family from their building materials shop.
Next door, Zhuang’s neighbor Wei Zhengming, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, was shoveling mud in his clinic; his feet in slippers were covered in mud.
“It was all water, front and back. I didn’t want to do anything. I just ran upstairs and waited for rescue. I remember thinking, if no one came to get us, we’d be in real trouble,” said Wei.
Beijing authorities launched a top-level emergency response at 8 p.m., ordering people to stay inside, closing schools, suspending construction work and stopping outdoor tourism and other activities until the response is lifted.
The heaviest rain in Beijing was expected after midnight, with rainfall of up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) forecast for some areas.
In Miyun, floodwaters could be seen sweeping away parked cars in an apartment complex in footage shown by the state broadcaster.
Authorities were discharging water from the Miyun reservoir, a main source of water for the city, and warning people to stay away from rivers downstream as their levels rose.
Officials told the Beijing Daily they had evacuated 4,015 people to avoid the floods as the reservoir recorded its highest level since record-keeping began in 1951.
In the nearby city of Tianjin, some 5,600 people were relocated for fear of floods, CCTV reported.
The central government said in a statement it had sent 50 million yuan (about $7 million) to Hebei and dispatched a high-level team of emergency responders to help the affected cities, which include Chengde, Baoding and Zhangjiakou.
Beijing and Hebei suffered severe flooding in 2023.
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Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang in Taishitun, China, and writer Huizhong Wu in Bangkok contributed.
Ken Moritsugu And Mahesh Kumar, The Associated Press
