18 Killed, 2000 Displaced in China Deadly Floods (Video)

Central China’s massive rainfalls and flooding continued to rise on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, and displacing nearly 2000 residents.

Local media stated that more than 500 rescued after a subway line was flooded in Zhengzhou city, in China’s central Henan province, which has been hit by the highest daily rainfall.

Authorities have issued the highest warning levels for the province as the situation is expected to worsen. Moreover, the municipal meteorological bureaus of Henan province as well as Zhengzhou have raised the emergency response for the disaster to level I.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping described the flooding menace in Henan province as extremely severe, adding flood prevention efforts have become difficult.

“Some rivers have exceeded monitoring levels, some dams have broken down, while some railway services have stopped and flights cancelled, causing heavy casualties and property losses,” Xi said on Wednesday.

Zhengzhou, city with a population of more than 12 million, saw a record-high hourly precipitation of 201.9 mm from 4pm to 5pm on Tuesday, according to the Henan provincial meteorological centre.

Pictures and videos shared on social media showed passengers dealing with the rising water levels inside a train carriage.

“As of 7am on July 21, almost 200,000 people were evacuated in an emergency and 36,000 city residents were affected by the disaster,” the city authorities said.

Rescue and relief authorities had to cut open the roof of the carriage to pull out people to safety, news agency AFP reported.

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The level of rainfall in the city witnessed over the three days was one seen only “once in a thousand years”, local media cited meteorologists as saying, according to Reuters.

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Since Tuesday, several kindergarten children have been trapped in their schools while a large hospital in the city, which has more than 7,000 beds, has no power and all back up supplies are exhausted, the People’s Daily reported.