BEIJING — Officials have raised the death toll to at least 37 in the heaviest rainstorm to hit Beijing in six decades. At least 18 other storm deaths were reported elsewhere in China.
The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas.
A statement from the city government late Sunday said 25 people in Beijing drowned, six were killed when houses collapsed, one was hit by lightning and five were electrocuted by fallen power lines.
The official China Daily newspaper reported today that rain and flooding caused at least $1.6 billion in damage, with 60,000 people evacuated from their homes.
Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, the government’s Xinhua News Agency said, citing disaster officials. Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their truck was swept away by a rain-swollen river. Eight others died in neighboring Shaanxi province.
On Sunday, the government warned of more storms forecast over the next 24 hours for China’s northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast.
China suffers flooding and dozens of storm-related deaths every summer rainy season, but such a heavy downpour in relatively dry Beijing is unusual.
On Saturday, the capital’s suburban Fangshan district received 18.4 inches of rain, breaking a record set in 1951, the weather bureau said. It said suburban Pinggu district got 4 inches of rain in one hour.
A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary-school students and nine teachers at a military training site, Xinhua said. It said they were in no immediate danger and that rescuers had taken food to them.
At the Beijing airport, 229 domestic and 14 international flights were canceled and more were delayed, the airport authority announced. The Beijing News said some 80,000 travelers were stranded at the airport as of 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
The capital’s skies were clear Sunday, but the airport said nine more domestic flights were canceled and 50 delayed, while four international flights were canceled and four delayed.
Some 14,500 people were evacuated Saturday from parts of Beijing, Xinhua said. The Beijing News said that included 5,200 people who left areas in Fangshan that were vulnerable to landslides.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 07/23/2012