At least 37 people were killed and more than 50,000 others displaced
from their homes after the heaviest rains in 61 years brought life on
the streets of China’s capital to a grinding halt this weekend.
The rains, which drenched Beijing for close to 12 hours starting
Saturday evening, triggered a massive clean-up operation on Sunday as
the local government mobilised 12,000 people to drain 1 million cubic
meters of waters from the city’s streets.
As of 5 pm on Sunday evening, at least 37 people were reported killed,
the municipal government said. Of them, 25 had drowned, while six died
after their homes in suburban Beijing collapsed.
Train services were suspended and more than 80,000 people were
reportedly left stranded at the capital airport, while at least 50,000
residents had to be relocated due to flooding, officials said.
Residents took to China’s popular Twitter equivalent, Sina Weibo, to
post photographs of submerged cars and vent their anger at city
authorities for building drainage systems that appeared to offer little
help this past weekend. The rain in Beijing was the most discussed topic
for the website's three hundred million users, triggering more than
five million posts.
The rains, according to Weibo accounts, seemed to have brought out the
best and worst in Beijing’s residents: several posts detailed
heart-warming accounts of citizens offering free foods and shelter,
stories that were highlighted by the State media on Sunday.
Others, however, complained of taxi drivers charging as much as 1,000
RMB (around Rs. 8,600) for short rides as traffic ground to a halt on
grid-locked streets, and were unsure whether to be angered or amused by
accounts of policemen issuing parking violation tickets to cars that had
drifted far down the flooded streets.