cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/40380507

The recent flooding that killed 31 in a single nursing home exposed flaws in emergency planning as China braces for more extreme and unpredictable weather.

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As [China] braces for more extreme and unpredictable weather caused by climate change, the disaster in the Miyun District of Beijing [which killed 31] also has exposed what local officials admitted were “flaws” in emergency planning. City officials issued a rare apology and this week called for all flood prevention and disaster relief measures to be “unremittingly implemented.”

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As global temperatures rise, shifting ocean currents are causing more rainfall in China’s typically arid north. A report released in June by China’s Ecology and Environment Ministry said precipitation in northern China last year was 83 percent higher than the average between 1991 and 2020.

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Across China, the number of flash floods has at least doubled compared with a stretch before the year 2000, according to a recent analysis by Guangtao Fu, a professor at the University of Exeter focusing on water systems.

Mass floods in the capital in 2012, 2016 and 2023 were concentrated in the south. But this year, the rains struck to the north, where residents and officials were less prepared.

Before the floods hit, it had rained for five days straight, with some areas of Miyun pounded by nearly a year’s worth of precipitation. The heavy downpour in Miyun, as well as upstream in the Ganyu Valley, caused the Qingshui River to surge to record levels. By the morning of July 28, the river’s rate of flow was 1,500 times its normal level.

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The Qingshui, like many rivers in northern China, has been dredged and modified for better flood control. But experts say adding flood walls or channeling rivers between concrete embankments — China’s traditional method of flood prevention — has made such disasters worse because the surrounding area is less able to absorb the water.

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