Northeast China on high alert for flooding amid heavy downpours

Electricians check electrical wires in the rain in Benxi, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 26, 2024. (Photo by Jiang Yunfeng/Xinhua)

SHENYANG/CHANGCHUN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Over 14,500 people in northeast China's Liaoning Province have been relocated following an orange alert, the second-highest level, for rainstorms, according to local authorities.

From 5 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday, Liaoning recorded an accumulative precipitation of up to 240.1 millimeters and hourly precipitation of 55.3 millimeters, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

As of 8 a.m. Friday, Liaoning had suspended 24 road transport routes, while 102 ships and 25 ferries halted service. Heavy downpours have also disrupted traffic on nine rural highways, according to the provincial transportation department.

Local railway authorities in northeast China have adopted measures in advance, including train speed reduction, temporary service suspension and adjustment of operating sections for some passenger trains traveling through routes prone to water hazards.

The Liaoning provincial water resources department has dispatched task forces to supervise the drainage work of floodwater in approximately 155,500 mu (about 1,0367 hectares) of farmland. Over 3,200 rescue teams and more than 128,000 people have been put on emergency standby.

A total of 11 cities and 70 county-level areas across Liaoning have activated local emergency response to flooding, among which the provincial capital Shenyang raised its emergency response to Level II, the second-highest level, local meteorological authorities said.

Starting from 5 a.m. Thursday, Shenyang experienced its heaviest downpour since meteorological records began in 1951. As of 9 a.m. Friday, the city's average precipitation had reached 124.5 millimeters.

The Shenyang municipal meteorological bureau stated that the record-breaking downpours were partly intensified by moisture carried by the peripheral currents of Typhoon Gaemi. The typhoon made its second landfall on Thursday evening in Xiuyu District located in the city of Putian in east China's Fujian Province.

On Friday, all schools, after-school training institutions, kindergartens and other educational institutions in Shenyang suspended classes for one day. Multiple cultural venues and museums in the city, including the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, had temporarily closed as of Friday afternoon.

The latest round of rainfall has led to urban waterlogging in Shenyang's Hunnan District. So far, 210 trapped vehicles have been removed, and over 2,000 cubic meters of water have been drained.

In neighboring Jilin Province, two rescuers, including a vice mayor of Linjiang City, remain missing following mountain torrents triggered by heavy downpours, local authorities said Friday.

A traffic officer directs traffic in the rain in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 26, 2024. (Photo by Wang Hongtao/Xinhua)

Vehicles run through a flooded road in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 26, 2024. (Photo by Wang Hongtao/Xinhua)

Sanitation workers clear a flooded street in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 26, 2024. (Xinhua)

People walk in the rain in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Long Lei)

A man rides amid downpour in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)