BEIJING (Reuters) -Beijing put most of its hilly districts on the highest alert for heavy rainfall on Monday and warned residents against going out unnecessarily, after dozens recently died in the deadliest floods to hit the Chinese capital since 2012.
Up to 200mm (7.9 inches) of rain could hit parts of Beijing over a six-hour period from midday, weather forecasters warned. The city of 22 million people receives on average 600mm of rainfall each year.
Late last month, at least 44 people died in Beijing after days of heavy rains. Most of the dead were people unexpectedly trapped by rapidly rising waters at a nursing home in Miyun district on the city’s northeastern outskirts. The fatalities led authorities to admit to shortcomings in their contingency plans for extreme weather.
On Monday, Beijing had six of its 16 districts on the highest alert for heavy rainfall – Mentougou, Fangshan, Fengtai, Shijingshan, Huairou and Changping – all of which lie in mountainous areas to the west and north of the city.
The risk of flash floods and landslides is “extremely high”, local authorities cautioned.
In the summer of 2012, 79 people died in Beijing in the city’s deadliest flooding in living memory. Fangshan district was the worst-hit, with one resident reporting a rise in floodwaters of 1.3 metres in just 10 minutes.
Beijing’s topography has been described by some as a rain “trap”, with its mountains to the west and north capturing moist air and amplifying any ensuing rainfall as a result.
In southern Guangdong province over the weekend, the bodies of five people were recovered after a large-scale search operation involving more than 1,300 rescuers.
The five people, who went missing on Friday night, were “swept away by water” following heavy rainfall in recent days, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Stephen Coates)
