Residents in Beijing's Miyun district are counting the cost of devastating floods that killed 30 people in the capital, with many lacking insurance and receiving minimal official support. Wang Rongying, 71, described how floodwaters rushed into her home on Monday evening after she opened her door to check the rising water levels. 'I was so scared … never since the 1980s have I seen such heavy flooding. We didn’t receive any warning in advance,' she said, surveying the damage to her two-storey house.
Wang spent several hours on her rooftop before being rescued by emergency services. She was taken to an overnight relief centre, where she was given sweets to manage her diabetes. Like many elderly neighbours, she is retired and lives on a modest pension of 3,000 yuan per month. She estimates the damage to her uninsured home and belongings will cost about 100,000 yuan. 'We just need to find a way to manage,' she said.
The floods, which saw a year's worth of rain in less than seven days, stretched emergency services to their limits. In total, 30 people died in Miyun and Yanqing districts, and more than 80,000 people were relocated. Eight people in neighbouring Hebei province were killed in a landslide. More than 130 villages lost power. Many residents received text messages warning of landslides and flash floods, but several said the advice to 'pay attention to safety' was too vague to be helpful.
A 37-year-old sanitation worker, who declined to give his name, said he was working in central Beijing when he heard about the floods. 'My heart flew back to my family,' he said, estimating his financial losses at 20,000 yuan, several months' salary. Another resident, a 69-year-old retired farmer surnamed Duan, was rescued along with his wife by a forklift truck. He said everything in his house was destroyed, including a new air conditioning unit costing 6,000 yuan. Like Wang, he has no insurance and expects no government compensation.
Extreme weather events are becoming more common in China due to the climate crisis. Earlier this month, China's emergency ministry said 25 million people had been affected by natural disasters in the first half of the year. Last month, several people died in heavy flooding in Guizhou province. In 2023, a separate district of Beijing was hit by record rainfall that killed at least 20 people. While China's emergency response efforts are improving, the social safety net for survivors remains minimal.
