The central Chinese province of Henan is facing a dire flood situation after the recent torrential rains. The record rainstorm caused severe waterlogging on the streets of many cities including the capital Zhengzhou that recorded 20cm of rain between 4 to 5 PM on Tuesday (July 20). The sudden flooding left people stuck and trapped on waterlogged roads, shopping malls, offices and even on underground subway trains.
People stuck in the flood have been sharing videos narrating their ordeal and displaying the magnitude of destruction caused by the heavy downpour. Sinologist Manya Koetse compiled a Twitter thread of videos and pictures shared by people on Chinese social media platforms.
One of the videos shared by Manya showed the dire situation and featured a group of passengers who were stuck inside an underground subway in nearly neck-deep water. She informs that while the majority of the passengers were rescued safely out of the subway train, some, unfortunately, could not be saved.
Subway passengers trapped in the water. pic.twitter.com/IyqmKN7WEr— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 20, 2021
The visuals of the flood situation got scarier with each video and the entire place appeared to be submerged with water flowing with a strong current. The flood condition also meant that the power supply was affected and even there were also reports of some hospitals dealing with a power outage.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University is apparently dealing with a power outage, there are cries for help by netizens on social media to help with resources to rescue patients. (These are not verified news reports, waiting for official news reports on this.) pic.twitter.com/uyAIvzAxb5— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 20, 2021
Many school children and teachers were trapped inside the school building after which authorities had to rescue and move them to a safer location
Just before midnight, over 150 people (kids and teachers) were rescued from a flooded kindergarten in Zhengzhou. Glad to see some of the kids and firefighters smiling during the rescue operation 🙌 pic.twitter.com/iX26hdMTDx— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 20, 2021
Another footage showed cars flowing in water as citizens tried moving to a safer place managing through almost neck-deep water.
Several cities including Zhengzhou were hit by downpours, leading to extreme scenes. pic.twitter.com/OPZlxrvuFz— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 20, 2021
According to reports, at least 12 people have lost their lives because of the flood and nearly 1 lakh people had to be moved to a safer location. The authorities are still working on the rescue operation and these numbers could even go up.
Reacting to the videos, netizens called this devastation caused by the impacts of global warming and said that people around the world should take a lesson from the recent floods in China and Germany.
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