Beijing floods

[adrianlondon]

I hope all our members and friends in Beijing are safe - sounds nasty; especially stories of power lines falling and electrocuting people standing in water.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18942984

[SinoPhil]

I would also like to send my best wishes to everybody in Beijing.

[pprendeville]

+ 1

[WestTexas]

Was here in Beijing last night during the storm. Yeah, it sure rained a lot.While it's sad that 10 people drowned and all, Beijing has what, 20 million people? There are probably more than 10 Beijingren that die from slipping in the shower each day. Not to be insensitive or anything.

[hali_bote]

I wish everything will be okay. No matter what, Beijing is still my favourite city.

[Flying Pigeon]

The sky was very dark in the morning, before the storm hit. Ended up canceling plans to run errands and stayed home all day, watching and listening to the rain. Amazing weather today: Blue sky, sunshine, gentle breeze.

I've been in Beijing for three years and have realized that summer is my favorite season here, because of the thunderstorms. There was a big storm a couple of weeks ago; fortunately there weren't any injuries or casualties. I was sad to hear that 10 people died during yesterday's storm.

[Kenny同志]

Many of these deaths could have been prevented if Beijing had had better drainage systems. Unfortunately it is not the only Chinese city that has suffered from this problem, i.e., Nanchang.

[Kenny同志]

UPDATE: 37 people killed so far, 25 drowned, 6 killed by collapsing houses, 1 struck by lightning, 5 electrocuted.

[Meng Lelan]

Drainage is a real problem in Chinese urban areas. I remember riding in a shuttle to a train station in Tianjin and the streets were flooded after maybe three hours of heavy rain, water up to above our knees, literally, in the street.

[imron]

Amazing weather today: Blue sky, sunshine, gentle breeze.

Beijing is almost always nice after the rain.

[大肚男]

my heart and prayers are with all Beijingers .maybe Some good may come from this in that it would pressure the government to fix the drainage system

[zhouhaochen]

well, it might have been different in other parts of the city, but around Sanlitun and the areas of Chaoyang I was in, there was a lot of water, a lot of rain and at times it was difficult to drive. But no whatsoever disaster situation as it is described by some of the media. The restaurant we went to was full just as normal, the subways were running as normal and I even managed to get a taxi back (though I was a bit lucky there probably).

So if there was horrible flooding and a need to pray for people - it must have been in some part of Beijing far away from where I live. In a city of 20 million, indeed I would imagine at least 10 people die every day falling down the stairs on any given day.

One story I havent heard about was the weibo campaign to help to "rescue" people from the airport as there were no more taxis, where people just drove there and picked up people for free. I have one friend who went twice.

[Kenny同志]

The worst hit area of the city was Fangshan District.

Click here to watch the video.

[Kenny同志]

Pictures of after-storm Fangshan

京港澳高速“捞”出40辆车3具遗体

[Tianjin42]

Found myself in Northern Beijing (芍药居 area) during the storm. I was on the 10

^th

floor but the basement apartments were badly flooded. A few of us went downstairs with the big buckets and helped the guys clear water until the fire brigade came (1am).

It was bad, the worst storm in 60 years according to some, but this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced floods like this in Beijing and you would have to point to the drainage system. Still, when the fire brigade arrived the pumps did the job and we kept the worst at bay. Fangshan looks bad indeed.

[langxia]

I was lucky I went home before it really started to rain a lot but a lot of other people didn't have that chance or did loose their home.

At the moment there are rumours spreading that in some parts there are still more than 200 people missing or unaccounted for but in the news they don't talk about it. I don't know what to think about that because mostly rumours is what they are rumours. I hope it will stay a rumour and we won't have to see an updated deadtoll.

[langxia]

Well the death toll is up to 77 now. They predicted rain again the last few days but instead of Beijing it hit Tianjin. Now it is raining a lot again...