Deluged No warning and little help as floods inundate Beijing

Wang Rongying was lying in bed at 6pm on Monday when her phone started pinging with messages from neighbours. They told her the heavy rainfall Wang could hear outside was starting to raise the water levels on the street to worrying levels. When she opened her front door to look, the flood water came rushing in.

- Amy Hawkins

Wang Rongying was lying in bed at 6pm on Monday when her phone started pinging with messages from neighbours. They told her the heavy rainfall Wang could hear outside was starting to raise the water levels on the street to worrying levels. When she opened her front door to look, the flood water came rushing in. "I was so scared... never since the 1980s have I seen such heavy flooding. We didn't receive any warning in advance," Wang said, surveying the remains of her two-storey home in Miyun, on Beijing's outskirts. By midnight, 28 Miyun residents were reported dead. "I feel grateful to be alive," said 71-year-old Wang on Tuesday afternoon, still wearing her muddy clothes from the night before.

Like many of her elderly neighbours, Wang found refuge on her rooftop, where she waited for several hours to be rescued by emergency services. She waved a red item of clothing to help rescuers spot her more easily. At about 11pm, she was found and taken to an overnight relief centre where she was given sweets to help her manage her diabetes.

The floods that hit Beijing this week, which came after a year's worth of rain fell in less than seven days, stretched the emergency services to their limits. In total, 30 people are reported to have died in Miyun and Yanqing, another mountainous district on the edge of the capital, and more than 80,000 people have been relocated.