Massive Flooding Caused by Heavy Rains Lashed China's Central Province of Henan, Killing 12

President Xi Jinping says the situation is "extremely severe" after three days of intense rain that could serve as a year's rain fell in the city of Zhengzhou.

Heavy Rainfall in Zhengzhou

Twelve people lost their lives in the underground rail system of Zhengzhou as China's central province of Henan witnessed heavy rain, compelling tens of thousands to relocate from their homes and leaving a high possibility of a dam collapse.

Photos posted on social media on Tuesday revealed waters up to the necks of passengers, holding on to the handrails at the interior of a carriage on Zhengzhou's subway. Other passengers recorded videos of the water increasing in the tunnels at the exterior of the carriage windows.

The provincial capital that comprises over 10 million people had "witnessed a series of uncommon and intense rainstorms, bringing about accumulation of water in Zhengzhou metro," said city officials in a Wednesday Weibo post, saying 12 people had lost their lives and five were left with injuries.

Storm in Rainy Season

A survivor wrote on social media saying the water got to his chest, the survivor also said he was really afraid, but the water wasn't the most terrifying thing, but the increasingly declining air supply in the carriage.

Since the weekend, storms have affected Henan province in an uncommonly active rainy season that has prompt the bursting of rivers banks, flooding the highway of a dozen cities and disturbing the day-to-day lives of millions of people.

The rainfall was the highest since documentation began 60 years ago with the city witnessing the kind of rain it normally sees in one year in just three days, weather officials in Zhengzhou, almost 431 miles (700 kilometres) southeast of Beijing said.

In that time, some 24.3 inches (617.1 millimetres) of rain was witnessed in Zhengzhou, compared with the yearly average of 25.2 inches (640.8 mm) in the city.

Response to the Flood

During the night, authorities gave a warning that the flood had brought about a 66-foot (20-metre) breach in the Yihetan dam in Luoyang - a city of roughly seven million individuals - with the risk of the dam collapsing at any time.

PLA Soldiers were sent to execute an emergency response both blasting and diversion of flood.

As the rain persisted on Wednesday, thousands of firefighters and troops were sent to the area to assist with search and rescue, and Xi Jinping, the President, with the aid of the state television demanded that authorities at all levels give prime concern to making sure people are safe, and also implement prevention of flood and disaster relief measures.

Floods usually take place during the rainy season in China, but the threat has gotten worse across the decades, anticipated in part to general construction of dams and levees.

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