AUTHORITIES in the Hebei provincial government has suspended four local officials for their inadequate responses to the floods that have killed 114 people over the past week, with 111 others still missing.
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Seventy-two people were killed, while 78 others were missing, with the collapse of over 52,000 homes in Hebei after the rain triggered floods and landslides.
As many as 16 million people across China have been forced from their homes, Reuters news agency reported.
Almost 300,000 people were evacuated in Hebei, and the province made another round of appropriations of tents, blankets, rain boots and generators, the provincial department of civil affairs said. More than 70,000 hectares of crops lie destroyed and losses of nearly over 16 billion Yuan (USD 2.4 billion) are reported.
The Xingtai village of Daxian was swamped by a flash flood early Wednesday as residents were asleep. Most of the residents have gone here and there for shelter while about a dozen have stayed back.
Authorities blamed extraordinary rainfall and a failure of a river levee near the village for the sudden water surge.
Communication disruptions, road closures, power outrages, and other infrastructural damages across Jingxing are a source of great concern.
Locals in Xingtai said officials didn’t give adequate warning and that evacuation efforts lagged.
The local government has also sent 15 working teams into 12 flooded villages to investigate the situation, comfort villagers and carry out epidemic prevention.
“The village chief informed us about the flood situation around 2 a.m. that day, but the floodwaters had nearly arrived by that time”, said a villager who would only give his surname, Zhang, when reached by phone Sunday.
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Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang presided over a national meeting on flood control and disaster relief in Beijing yesterday, urging governments at all levels to put safety of the people first and strengthen flood control measures.
