Fierce rain and flooding that have pummeled Beijing since the weekend have killed at least 11 people, triggering landslides and sweeping away cars on the city’s outskirts after the authorities issued a red alert for what they warned was the heaviest deluge in years.
The intense rain prompted Beijing to close tourist attractions like the ancient Forbidden City. But the worst effects have been felt in the city’s outer districts, where downpours overwhelmed riverbeds that usually stay dry for much of the year.
On Tuesday, the Beijing government announced that, in addition to the 11 killed in the flooding — including two rescue workers — another 27 were missing, implying that the death toll could rise significantly.
Most of the fatalities were in the outer parts of Beijing, including Mentougou District, where video shared by local news outlets on Monday showed cars being swept down a swollen river. Chinese television later showed footage of residents in the district walking through muddy streets strewn with cars that had been washed away. The Beijing government said 13 of the missing were in Mentougou, and another 10 were in Changping, another semi-rural district.
Emergency alerts in the Chinese capital and in neighboring provinces of northern China warned residents against the continued dangers, with heavy rain predicted to last until Tuesday. Chinese television news showed a rescuer in Hebei Province, next to Beijing, suspended from cables and plucking a man from his car that was swept away.
The rains “are marked by their long duration, large accumulative rainfall and high dangers of disaster,” Fang Chong, a senior forecaster with China’s Central Meteorological Observatory, told Xinhua, the country’s state-run news agency. The heavy rains have been caused by a mass of moist air that was pushed northward by a recent typhoon, Chinese meteorologists have said.
Between Saturday evening and late Monday night, Beijing recorded an average of more than nine inches of rain, the city’s meteorological office said. In the city’s Mentougou District, the average was over 17 inches, and one area of Mentougou was hit by 27 inches. Beijing issued a “red alert” warning, telling residents in the worst-hit districts to stay indoors unless it was essential to go out.
The Chinese capital’s high vigilance over the rains appears to partly reflect memories of flash floods in 2012, when officials seemed ill-prepared. The government ultimately announced a count of 79 dead, mostly from drownings in the southern parts of the city where drainage was poor, but some in the city believed the actual death toll was even higher.
This time, the Beijing authorities said on Tuesday they had evacuated more than 52,000 people to put them out of danger. While the rains were forecast to ease, the city government nonetheless warned that the dangers had not passed.
“There are increased risks of secondary disasters such as floods, mountain flash floods and mudslides induced by the continued rainfall across the city,” the Beijing government warned.
Beijing has a population of 22 million and the extra resources that come from serving as the nation’s capital. But the expansion of the city has shrunk natural drainage areas, sending overflow onto roads and into neighborhoods. In Mentougou, emergency workers rushed on Sunday to clear away a wall of polystyrene debris and other trash that had been washed down a river by the floods, creating a dangerous blockage near a bridge.