Five dead, thousands displaced in floods in China’s Shanxi province

Persistent downpours have brought five times the usual amount of rain to the normally arid area
Dams have collapsed, and coal mines have closed, adding fuel supply fears

Accidents, extreme weather and disasters in China

Mandy Zuoin Shanghai

Published: 8:29pm, 10 Oct 2021

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At least five people are dead and 120,000 people displaced after days of heavy downpours led to floods and landslides in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi.

The largely arid province has reported more than five times its usual rainfall since the start of the month, resulting in the destruction of dams and rail lines.

Shanxi’s emergency management department said on Sunday that 1.75 million people had been affected and more than 17,000 buildings had collapsed.

The province, a major coal producer, also shut 60 coal mines, adding to concerns over supplies of the fuel as the country battles a power shortage and northern China’s heating season approaches.

Days of heavy rain in Shanxi province have forced 120,000 people to abandon their homes. Photo: People’s Daily

According to mainland media reports, four traffic police officers were killed and another was injured in a landslide in Pu county in the city of Linfen on Tuesday.

Further north, the city of Luliang reported one death caused by a rain-induced landslide on Monday.

Work at more than 1,000 building projects was suspended, and more than 160 scenic sites were closed amid the record rainfall, the department said on Friday.

Dams on several sections of the Wuma River collapsed, forcing 15,000 people from eight villages to abandon their homes.

Emergency workers fill a breach in a dyke in Xinjiang county in Shanxi on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

Heavy rain also destroyed foundations for a railway crossing over the Changyuan River in Qi county, leaving rail track dangling, according to footage posted online.

Historical sites were also damaged in the rain, including the ancient city wall of Pingyao, and the Jin Temple near Taiyuan, the earliest classical ancestral temple complex in the country.

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More than 7,000 people forced to flee floods in city of Xunyang in northwestern China

Downpours also battered neighbouring Shaanxi province, with more than 18,000 people forced to abandon their homes when a dam burst on the Luo River, a major tributary of the Yellow River, the second longest in China.

The Yellow River, part of which passes through Shaanxi and Shanxi, is also in its third flood of the year due to persistent rain, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

China has seen more torrential rain this year than normal, according to a summary of natural disasters in the first three quarters of the year released by the Ministry of Emergency Management on Sunday.

In total, 792 people died or were missing in natural disasters between January and September, it said.

This was a 14 per cent drop from the average in the past five years, but over 70 per cent of the tragedies happened in torrential rain and floods, it said.

In mid and late July, extreme precipitation hit central China’s Henan province, leaving 302 people dead and 50 missing, including 15 people who died in a flooded subway in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Five dead, thousands displaced after floods hit northern Shanxi province