Torrential rainfall in China’s Hebei province leaves 29 dead, 16 missing

Beijing, Aug 11 (EFE).- A total of 29 people have died and 16 remain missing due to devastating rains in the northern Chinese province of Hebei in recent weeks, the provincial authorities said Friday.

Torrential rains lashed the province, which has an area similar to that of Uruguay and a population of more than 70 million, for almost 144 hours between 8 am on July 27 and 8 am on Aug. 2, with an average rainfall of 146.2 millimeters.

The authorities expressed their condolences to the victims and said that search and rescue efforts to locate the missing were still underway, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The rains also damaged some 31,970 hectares of crops, of which 13,150 hectares were completely lost, and caused the collapse of or damage to more than 190,000 homes.

Some 1,150 schools, 1,900 health centers and basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, electrical and communication networks and hydraulic works were affected, the state-run China News Service reported.

Typhoon Doksuri, which swept across China from south to north, also left at least 33 people dead after causing Beijing, which is surrounded by Hebei, to record its heaviest rainfall in 140 years.

The central government has allocated 520 million yuan ($72 million) to help the rain-affected regions with another 732 million yuan ($102.3 million) to support the recovery of agricultural production.

In 2021 and 2022, summers in central China were marked by heavy rains not seen in decades, which resulted in more than 300 deaths, even as a persistent drought affected the southern parts of the country. EFE

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