China: Doksuri flooding in Beijing leaves several dead

Torrential rain continued on Tuesday in Beijing, as storm Doksuri dumped the average rainfall for the entire month of July on the city within 40 hours. 

At least 11 people have died in the Beijing area, with another 13 missing, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday. Two victims were workers "killed on duty during rescue and relief." The number of missing was revised after 14 people were found safe. 

In neighboring Hebei province, nine people were killed and six were missing, CCTV reported. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for "every effort" to rescue people lost or trapped, and for authorities to restore conditions back to normal as soon as possible. 

In the neighboring Hebei province, precipitation from Saturday to Monday at one local weather station was more than what is usually measured in over six months, with rainfall amounting to 1,003 mm (39.4 inches).

Rivers and streams in the capital and surrounding region have swollen to dangerous levels. The rising water has forced authorities to use a flood control reservoir for the first time since it was built over two decades ago.

Some 150,000 households in Beijing's hard-hit western Mentougou district had no running water, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday. The city has dispatched 45 water tankers to offer emergency supplies.

"This morning it was crazy, the water overflowed the Mentougou river and the whole avenue was flooded," Guo Zhenyu, a 49-year-old Mentougou resident, told the AFP news agency. Another Beijing resident, Qin Quan, told AFP, "I'm old but I've never seen flooding like this before in my life."

Roads closed, trains stranded, residents evacuated 

Authorities in Beijing have sealed off over 100 mountain roads and evacuated 52,000 people from their homes in Beijing. Many train and subway stations are closed

The Chinese government deployed four military helicopters with 26 personnel on Tuesday to deliver supplies to stranded train passengers in Beijing, according to state media.

Local media reported chaotic scenes of high-speed trains stranded for as long as 30 hours without access to food or drinking water.

Another typhoon approaches China 

Beijing's local government said the rainfall over the last four days was more than what was recorded during a severe storm in 2012 that killed 79 people. 

According to state media, thunderstorms and rainfall are forecast in Beijing and neighboring Tianjin and Hebei through Tuesday.

Meanwhile, China is preparing for another typhoon named Khanun, which is expected to make landfall later in the week on China's east coast after crossing over southern Japan. Khanun is set to be China's sixth tropical storm so far this year. 

Doksuri, formerly a super Typhoon, is one of the strongest storms to hit modern day China. It made landfall on Friday in Fujian province, where it destroyed some 18,000 houses and forced 562,000 people to evacuate. 

Before that, the deadly storm caused devastation in the Philippines and Taiwan.

mk/wmr (AP, dpa, AFP, Reuters)