Wang Rongying was resting at home around 6 p.m. on Monday when her phone buzzed with notifications. Nearby residents mentioned that the heavy rain outside was causing alarming water levels on the street. When she opened her door to check, floodwater surged inside.
“I was terrified… I haven’t seen flooding this bad since the 1980s. Nobody warned us,” Wang said, looking at the damaged remains of her two-story home in Miyun, a district outside Beijing that was struck by severe flooding on Monday night. By midnight, officials reported 28 deaths in Miyun.
“I’m just glad to be alive,” the 71-year-old said the following afternoon, still in her dirt-stained clothes from the night before.
Like many of her older neighbors, Wang waited for hours on her rooftop before emergency crews arrived. She waved a red cloth to get their attention and was eventually rescued around 11 p.m. She spent the night at a temporary shelter, where she was given sugar to stabilize her blood sugar levels.
### Warnings Overlooked
The floods that struck Beijing brought a year’s worth of rain in less than a week, overwhelming emergency responders. In total, 30 people died in Miyun and Yanqing, another outlying district, and over 80,000 were displaced. A landslide triggered by the rainfall killed eight people in nearby Hebei province. More than 130 villages were left without electricity.
While many residents received government alerts about potential landslides and flash floods, the messages were vague, urging people to “be cautious.” Some in Miyun told CuriosityNews they either missed the warnings or never got them.
“They only sent a general notice—it didn’t help much,” said a 37-year-old sanitation worker searching for lost possessions in Miyun’s Century Sports Park. The once-green lawn was now a field of mud. He had been working elsewhere in Beijing when the flooding started. “I couldn’t focus knowing my family was in danger,” he said. By the time he returned, water had retreated, but his belongings were ruined, with losses estimated at 20,000 yuan (around $2,800)—several months' wages.
Wang, like many retirees in the area, survives on a tight budget, relying on a monthly pension of 3,000 yuan. Uninsured, she guessed repairs for her home and belongings would cost nearly 100,000 yuan. “We’ll have to make do,” she said, sharing pieces of watermelon with those around her. Remarkably, her two pet parakeets survived.
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