More than 30 killed, tens of thousands evacuated in Chinese floods

Washington Post

4 days ago

Torrential rains pounded vast swaths of northeastern China this week, with more heavy rain expected, as the country confronts another lethal summer of devastating floods that have left rescuers wading in water up to their elbows.
At least 34 people were killed and more than 80,000 evacuated as rains flooded Beijing and cities in nearby Hebei province. More heavy rain is forecast for the region in the coming days, the China Meteorological Administration said, though it's expected to weaken by the end of Wednesday.
Southern China is also experiencing heavy downpours, with Hong Kong issuing its highest rainstorm warning this year, although authorities canceled it Tuesday afternoon but still warned the public to remain on alert for landslides after significant rains in eastern and southern districts.
China is no stranger to powerful rainstorms and deadly floods, but scientists say global warming is exacerbating already turbulent conditions, making extreme weather events more frequent and more devastating over the past several decades.
China experienced notably extreme weather last year, including the highest number of floods in its major rivers since 1998, according to a report released by the Ecology and Environment Ministry last month.
The report said China's climate outlook for 2025 was 'unfavorable,' warning of risks to the economy and to human life.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for all-out search and rescue efforts, ordering authorities to plan for worst-case scenarios, according to state media reports Tuesday.
Beijing activated its highest-level flood alert Monday evening, urging residents to stay indoors. At least 21 inches of rain has poured into Miyun, a mountainous district in northeastern Beijing, where most of the deaths have occurred. Significant floods have also washed over the nearby cities of Chengde and Zhangjiakou.
More than 80,000 people have been evacuated, state media said, as floods mangled buildings, filled stairwells, uprooted trees and triggered landslides. At least 136 villages in the region suffered power outages, and cars were left scattered across city and provincial streets.
'It's truly heartbreaking. … The extremity of this event is undeniable,' said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing. He said the cumulative rainfall during this week's storm was nearly the same as Beijing's annual average.
The death toll of the floods is about half that of the 2012 disaster that killed at least 79 people in Beijing, but experts say climate change and global warming continue to exacerbate extreme weather in China, posing a mounting concern to scientists and the authorities.
'Extreme weather events are on the rise. High temperatures and heat waves are indeed becoming more frequent, and so are extreme heavy rainfall events,' Ma said. 'Over the past 60 years, there has clearly been an increasing trend, and this pattern aligns with the broader global trend of climate change.'
Natural disasters in China caused nearly $7.6 billion in direct economic losses in the first half of 2025, China's Emergency Response Ministry said last month, and they have affected an estimated 25 million lives.
Experts say Chinese authorities have sought to better prepare for extreme weather events in recent years, anticipating their rising frequency and intensity because of climate change.
'There's still room for improvement,' said Ma Ding, an assistant professor of atmospheric and environmental science at Duke Kunshan University in eastern China. But the country has shown 'considerable progress' in developing early-warning systems and evacuation plans, he said.
'Without those efforts, we wouldn't be talking about 30 deaths — we might be looking at hundreds,' he added, referring to the toll around Beijing. 'That's a clear example of successful adaptation.'
Last week, torrential rains devastated other parts of northern China, killing two people in the northeastern province of Shandong and at least one in nearby Shanxi province. An additional 13 were unaccounted for after a bus in Shanxi went missing Sunday, Chinese state media reported, following days of rain that had left roads in the area treacherously waterlogged.
Heavy rains and floods also killed at least six people in China's southwestern Guizhou province in June, prompting more than 80,000 to evacuate. Landslides in the area had leveled part of an expressway bridge and submerged a sports field three meters underwater.
This month, a record summer downpour in the central province of Hubei saw more than a month's worth of rainfall on the city of Xianfeng in less than 12 hours.