A sudden rainstorm deluged Beijing on the afternoon of June 23, drenching the capital with rainfall amounts said to be seen only once in a century. Two electrocutions have been reported and two residents were washed away down a storm drain.
View photos of the deluge HERE
The tempest began around 4 p.m. and the Beijing Meteorology Bureau issued a warning 10 minutes later. This was followed 40 minutes later by a geological disaster warning from the City Land and Resources Bureau.
The warning level was raised that evening, due to a possibility of landslides in the mountains north of the city.
Ten monitoring stations were recorded at 7 p.m. as having rain amounts exceeding 3.9 inches per hour, classified as a severe rainstorm. The heaviest occurred at Shijingshan, where over 7 inches of rain had already fallen. Hail fell near the Lianhua Bridge, reported Xinhua News.
Wang Yi, the director of the city’s Flood Control Office, told the Beijing Times the next day that this was the largest rainfall of the season. And since hourly rainfall in Beijing reached 5 inches, the storm has been classified as one experienced only once in a century.
Due to the heavy rain, the No. 1 and Yizhuang lines of the Beijing Subway were affected and some stations were forced to close.
Fuxingmen Bridge, Xizhimen Bridge and 37 other roads were impassable and traffic was paralyzed.
Two men in the Chaoyang district were electrocuted after stepping into pooled water exposed to a live wire. One of them was killed, the Beijing Times reported.
Xinjing News reported that two young men who were pushing a stalled car near Pingguoyuan fell into an uncovered drainage hole and were washed away. The two still have not been found.
Air traffic was halted at the main airport where over 200 flights were grounded.
Read the original Chinese article.
