Workers driving construction vehicles yesterday rescued stranded residents and delivered food to those still trapped after days of torrential rain swamped the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.
As floodwaters began to recede, rescuers in the city of 12 million used digger trucks, inflatable boats and makeshift rafts to transport residents to dry land and deliver provisions in high-rise apartment blocks.
Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, has borne the brunt of extreme wet weather in central China this week, receiving the equivalent of a year’s worth of rain in just a few days.
Photo: AFP
The resulting severe flooding killed 12 people who were trapped in the city’s subway system.
It also downed power supplies and stranded residents at home, in offices and on public transportation.
Some of the rescuers are volunteers using makeshift water craft, such as the digger trucks deployed by local construction companies.
One of the volunteers, Li Kui, 34, said that the demand for basic goods and food was immense.
“We start our day at 8am and go on until 2am. Besides having lunch and using the bathroom, we just go up and down the streets all day,” Li said.
Asked if he was exhausted, Li said: “Yes, but compared with the people trapped inside, they must be feeling worse.”
In other areas of the city where the floodwaters had subsided, municipal workers started the clean-up, sweeping away tree branches and clearing up other debris, including marooned bicycles and scooters.
Tens of thousands of rescue workers, including the military, have been deployed across Henan more broadly.
The death toll for the province from the flooding stood at 33.
Eight people remained missing as patchy mobile phone signal and power blackouts in some areas hindered official tallying.
Rescue professionals from neighboring provinces have been called in, along with specialized vehicles to drain waterlogged streets, intersections and road tunnels.
While the rains in Zhengzhou had eased to a light drizzle, other parts of Henan were still forecast to receive heavy rain yesterday, weather reports said.
In Xinxiang, a city north of Zhengzhou, 29 of 30 reservoirs were overflowing, a situation the local water conservancy bureau described as “grim.”
For rescuers, the task was sometimes upsetting. Local media reported that an infant was pulled from a collapsed home just outside Zhengzhou earlier this week, with the body of the child’s mother found a day later.
Zhou Xiaozhong, 33, a digger truck driver from nearby Kaifeng city, picked up a mother and her two young children.
“She was crying,” said Zhou, a father of three. “I too felt like crying.”
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