The heaviest rainfall in six decades caused
widespread havoc in this capital over the weekend, killing at least 37 people
and forcing the evacuation of 50,000 others from waterlogged neighborhoods and
villages, according to the state news media.
More than six inches of rain fell overnight
Saturday into Sunday, collapsing roofs, downing power lines and turning highway
underpasses into ponds that engulfed scores of cars and buses. About 80,000
passengers at Beijing Capital International Airport were stranded overnight after
fierce thunderstorms forced the cancellation of 500 flights, the state-run
Xinhua news agency said.
The sewer system of Beijing, a city poised
on the edge of the Gobi Desert, is ill-equipped to handle heavy precipitation;
residents in low-lying areas are accustomed to dealing with minor flooding
after rainstorms. Officials said the rain, which began at noon and stretched
into the early morning, was the heaviest since 1951.
The city’s flood control bureau said the
downpour in the city’s southwestern Fangshan district brought 18 inches of
water and forced the evacuation of hundreds, including 350 students who were
trapped at a military training site. Among the dead were a police officer
electrocuted by a falling power line and another person struck by lightning.
Elsewhere in the country, at least 10
people drowned or perished in landslides, including four people killed in
northern Shanxi Province when their truck was swept away by a swollen river,
the state news media reported.
Although the rain yielded to sunny skies on
Sunday, meteorologists warned of more stormy weather in the coming days.
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