Beijing, Aug 7 (EFE).- At least 14 people have died and one is missing after heavy rainfall ravaged Shulan city in the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin, state media reported Monday.
The water level in reservoirs and major rivers has dropped to a level considered safe after continuous rainfall in the city since Tuesday night, local authorities said.
The rains caused flooding, landslides and power outages and communication outages in several areas of Shulan, a city with a population of about 700,000 located near the border with North Korea.
The local government has mobilized several rescue teams to evacuate residents, repair roads and restore power and communication, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Shulan recorded an average daily rainfall of 111.7 millimeters, almost double the level at which rains are considered torrential, i.e. 60 millimeters.
On Saturday, Chinese media reported that dozens of rivers in the northeastern Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces had breached danger levels due to the rain, with several dams also accumulating more water than allowed and being forced to drain.
Last week, the country’s meteorological authorities had warned of extremely heavy rains in the northeast of the country due to the impact of Typhoon Doksuri, which began causing floods in those areas on Thursday.
Doksuri, which left a trail of destruction last week in its passage from China’s south to the north, had already claimed at least 22 lives by Thursday.
The storm had caused the highest rainfall in China’s capital city of Beijing in 140 years.
in 2021 and 2022, summers in central China were marked by heavy rains not seen in decades, which resulted in more than 300 deaths, even as a persistent drought affected the southern parts of the country. EFE
aa/pd
