2 minutes ago ⚠️ 883 cities and million people are victims of typhoon and floods in China!

Many displaced people in Hebei, an industrial and agricultural hub that is home to many Beijing commuters, were forced from their homes in areas where authorities released trapped floodwaters that overflowed reservoirs and waterways. At least 10 people were killed in Baoding, a major city in Hebei province, the city’s government said Saturday. Another 18 are considered missing. According to local authorities, the rains in the city forced the evacuation of about 627,000 people and affected another 1.1 million people. Thousands of houses have already been damaged or destroyed. Local authorities said the economic damage from the storm was about US$2.2 billion. About 1.5 million people were evacuated from Hebei province, although it was unclear whether some people in flood-controlled areas had been evacuated earlier because of the heavy rains. The state news agency reported that 883 cities and towns in Hebei’s 98 county regions were affected by the flooding, affecting more than 2.2 million people. Among those relocated, more than 960,000 people are from storage areas and reservoirs designed to reduce the impact of flooding downstream in Hebei, the provincial flood and drought control headquarters said. “A series of flood control zones have been activated one after the other, resulting in displacement and relatively large economic losses,“ an official from the Ministry of Water Resources told the state broadcaster. In the current situation, upstream reservoirs have reached high levels. water levels are in urgent need of lowering, while downstream rivers also face limited capacity to cope with flood flows. A comment by a provincial official who suggested that the flooding in Hebei was done to protect the Chinese capital has sparked backlash and debate over the handling of the flood on social media. The party secretary of Hebei province, quoted in media reports, called on areas bordering Beijing to “resolutely serve as a ’moat’ for the capital“. In one of the widely shared articles on social media, a blogger who claimed his family was stranded in the flood-affected Hebei district wrote: “I hope we don’t have to be a ’victim’ to protect the capital from now on. ” - then some commentators disputed this point of view. While state media quoted other officials as saying that drainage in Hebei played a role in reducing pressure on the flood basin, he also rejected the idea that one area was flooded to save another. One state media report quoted a hydraulic engineer as saying the characterization was “not very accurate“ in terms of how flood control works. Official figures on the cost of damage to homes and farmland have not yet been released. According to national regulations, the value of property damaged by the release of water in flood control areas is compensated by 70%. Meanwhile, Hebei has dispatched 3,385 work teams and mobilized 150 million yuan, or about 21 million U.S. dollars, in materials to help with rescue efforts. More than 300 professional emergency rescue teams and 6,913 people participated in the rescue work at the site in Zhuozhou, one of the worst-affected areas in Hebei. The disaster highlights the challenges faced by the region, which is bordered by the Haihe River. a basin where five rivers converge - when it comes to heavy rains and floods. It is also the largest river system in northern China, covering a total area of 265,000 square kilometers, including 180 million hectares. A climatologist who studies meteorological hazards at the University of California, Irvine, said northern China has faced an increase in extreme rains over the past decade and needs to strengthen its disaster protection capabilities. Because the topography of northern China is higher in the west and lower in the east, precipitation usually accumulates on the western side of the North China Plain, where Hebei, Tianjin, and Beijing are located. Then the water flows east into the ocean. For high-risk cities located near mountains, in addition to addressing drainage and flood prevention in urban areas, greater attention should be paid to flash flood hazard mitigation, including controlled water discharge protocols used to regulate water flow to reduce impacts on downstream areas , according to the Sun. “Drainage design standards in northern Chinese cities need further improvement to cope with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events caused by climate change.“