Please save us panic on Chinese subway as flood filled carriage

By Ryan Woo and Stella QiuUpdated July 22, 2021 â€" 11.41amfirst published at 5.45amNormal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size

Beijing: Footage of subway commuters pleading for help as floodwaters filled their carriage has shocked China, as a once-a-millennium deluge has swamped the central province of Henan, killing at least 25 people.

About 100,000 people have been evacuated in Zhengzhou, an industrial and transport hub, where rail and road links were disrupted. Dams and reservoirs have swelled to warning levels and thousands of troops are taking part in the rescue effort in the province.

Passengers on the subway in Zhengzhou were trapped as their train dipped lower into a tunnel and water surged through the windows. Trapped for two hours, many made calls to loved ones or filmed themselves as water rose chest-high.

Radio host Ding Xiaopei posted a video on social media platform WeChat, wondering aloud if it would be her last ever post. “The water outside has reached this position and my mobile phone will soon run out of power.”

“Please save us!” she wrote.

Ding was rescued Tuesday night after being trapped in the subway train for more than three hours, according to Jiemian, a Shanghai-based financial news outlet.

Twelve people died on the train and more than 500 were eventually pulled to safety, state media reported.

“The water reached my chest,” a survivor wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.”

The rain halted bus services in the city of 12 million people about 650 km southwest of Beijing, said a resident called Guo, who had to spend the night at his office.

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“That’s why many people took the subway, and the tragedy happened,” Guo told Reuters.

Floodwaters are discharged at the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei province on Sunday.Credit:AP

Media said the dead included four residents of the city of Gongyi, located on the banks of the Yellow River like Zhengzhou, following the widespread collapse of homes and structures because of the rains.

More rain is forecast across Henan for the next three days, and the People’s Liberation Army has sent more than 5700 soldiers and personnel to help with search and rescue.

From Saturday to Tuesday, 617.1 mm of rain fell in Zhengzhou, almost the equivalent of its annual average of 640.8 mm.

Residents clean up the aftermath of a flood in Mihe Town of Gongyi City, in central China’s Henan province.Credit:AP

The three days of rain matched a level seen only “once in a thousand years”, the Zhengzhou weather bureau said.

Like recent heatwaves in the United States and Canada and extreme flooding seen in western Europe, the rainfall in China was almost certainly linked to global warming, scientists told Reuters.

“Such extreme weather events will likely become more frequent in the future,” said Johnny Chan, a professor of atmospheric science at City University of Hong Kong.

“What is needed is for governments to develop strategies to adapt to such changes,” he added, referring to authorities at city, province and national levels.

Many train services were suspended across Henan, a logistics hub with a population of about 100 million. Highways have also been closed and flights delayed or cancelled.

By Wednesday, media said food and water supplies had run out for hundreds of passengers stranded on a train that had stopped just beyond the city limits of Zhengzhou two days earlier.

Roads were severely flooded in a dozen cities of the province.

Flooded tunnel in Zhuhai city in south China’s Guangdong province.Credit:AP

Dozens of reservoirs and dams breached danger levels.

Local authorities said the rainfall had caused a 20-metre breach in the Yihetan dam in the city of Luoyang west of Zhengzhou, and that the dam could collapse at any time.

In Zhengzhou itself, where about 100,000 people have been evacuated, the Guojiazui reservoir had been breached but there was no dam failure yet.

Chinese companies, insurers and a state-backed bank said they had offered donations and emergency aid to local governments in Henan amounting to 1.935 billion yuan ($400 million).

Taiwan’s Foxconn, which operates a plant in Zhengzhou assembling iPhones for Apple, said there was no direct impact on the facility.

China’s largest automaker, SAIC Motor, warned of short-term impact on logistics at its plant there, while Japan’s Nissan said production at its factory had been suspended.

Schools and hospitals were marooned and people caught in the floods flocked to shelter in libraries, cinemas and museums.

“We’ve up to 200 people of all ages seeking temporary shelter,” said a staffer surnamed Wang at the Zhengzhou Science and Technology Museum.

“We’ve provided them with instant noodles and hot water. They spent the night in a huge meeting room.”

After the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou, the city’s largest, lost all power, officials raced to find transport for about 600 critically ill patients.

The neighbouring province of Hebei issued a storm alert for some cities, including Shijiazhuang, its capital, warning of moderate to heavy rain from Wednesday.

Reuters, The Washington Post

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