Call to evacuate Chinese residents ‘without delay’ as second typhoon threatens country’s northeast

“[We] would rather hear curses than cries. [We] have to relocate all the people threatened by the flood without leaving a family or a person behind,” Xu said.

The provincial hydrology authorities warned that the 12 rivers that had exceeded the warning level included two major waterways – the Mudan and Songhua rivers.

On Monday the Ministry of Water Resources had said that flooding in the Songhua River basin, which covers Heilongjiang and Jilin, was “still developing” and that water levels in 85 tributaries exceeded the warning line.

Chinese public fear repeat abuse of flood relief funds after latest disaster

China’s National Meteorological Centre said Typhoon Khanun, which is making its way towards Japan and South Korea, could affect northeastern China from Thursday, bringing heavy rainfall to areas that have already been battered by heavy rain.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said that Khanun made the flood control and disaster relief efforts “demanding and not optimistic”.

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management, which is in charge of disaster relief, said on Tuesday morning that local firefighters had made contact with all the outlying villages around Shulan city in the northeastern province of Jilin that had experienced communications cut-offs.

Flooding killed 14 people in Shulan, including three civil servants and one engineer carrying out relief work. Another Shulan official remains missing after being swept away by floodwaters.

Vice-premier Zhang Guoqing was in Heilongjiang from Saturday to Sunday to inspect flood control efforts. While there, he asked local authorities to “minimise casualties and property losses”.

On Friday, the government of Shangzhi, a city of 460,000 people near provincial capital Harbin, said the city had suffered its heaviest rainfall since 1957.

02:14

Residents of flood-ravaged Chinese city take stock of losses, hope for compensation

Heilongjiang, China’s largest grain-producing province, will begin its autumn harvest in October. But rice paddies in the city of Wuchang were inundated by floodwaters, and local farmers were worried about a reduction in yields this year, the official China News Service reported on Monday.

In northern China, heavy rainfall and flooding killed at least 20 people, and millions were relocated from their homes.

Lessons to be learned from Beijing’s worst flooding in 140 years

Tianjin authorities said on Sunday they had moved 80,000 people from their homes.

The Central Theatre of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on Monday afternoon that it had set up a command in Tianjin to guide the armed forces in fighting the floods.

The newly established National Administration of Financial Regulation said 190,000 insurance claims were filed in areas affected by flooding from Doksuri as of 10am on Sunday.

South China Morning Post