More than a million evacuated in China due to floods

More than 1.2 million people were evacuated from flooded areas in Hebei Province in northern China where the waters began to recede after the cessation of stormy rains that ravaged the region in recent days.

Because of the combined impact Typhoon Doksuri and streams of cold and warm air, Heavy rains lasted for nearly 144 hours in Hebei between 08:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on July 27 and the same time on August 2, with an average of 146.2 mm of rain across the province, local newspaper Global Times reported night.

The total rainfall of 27.5 billion cubic meters was equivalent to twice the total capacity of all large and medium-sized reservoirs in the province.

Throughout the province, with an area similar to that of Uruguay and more than 70 million inhabitants, seven reservoir areas were used to divert 1,800 million cubic meters of water, which contributed to the diversion of floods and prevented the collapse of reservoirs.

According to Li Na, Deputy Director Hebei Department of Water Resources, According to state broadcaster CCTV, the average rainfall in the city of Zhuozhou was 398 mm by Wednesday evening during the recent storms.

“Despite the decrease in rainfall, it will take time for the water level to drop,” Li said.

The National Meteorological Center announced that the rains had moved towards the northeast of the country since Wednesday with the possibility of “extremely heavy” rains.

The still-active effects of Typhoon Doksuri are expected to cause heavy rainfall in the northeast, where flooding was already reported on Thursday.

He Doksuriwhich swept across China from south to north, has so far left at least 22 dead and hundreds of thousands evacuated, in addition to causing rain in Beijing not seen in 140 years.

Chinese authorities recently warned of a high risk of floods and typhoons in August.

The summers of 2021 and 2022 were marked by rainfall of unprecedented intensity in decades in the center of the country, which caused more than 300 deaths, and prolonged drought in the center and south.

Song Lianchun, a meteorologist from National Meteorological Centerhe stated at the time: “We cannot say that an extreme weather event is directly caused by climate change, but, in the long term, global warming causes an increase in the intensity and frequency of such events.”