China News Service, Zhengzhou, July 21st. Title: Feature: Sleepless in Zhengzhou tonight
Reporter Han Zhangyun
Blocking river ruptures, transferring people affected by disasters, transporting critically ill patients, and rescuing passengers trapped in subway stations, caring businesses or units provide warm-hearted assistance to citizens who are trapped and unable to go home... Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, has been sleepless all night under heavy rain.
Continuous heavy rainfall has caused serious water accumulation in some streets of Zhengzhou.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Kan Li
rain! rain! rain!
From 18:00 on July 18th to the early morning of 21st, Zhengzhou experienced a rare process of continuous heavy rainfall. The city experienced heavy rainstorms and extremely heavy rainstorms, with a cumulative average of 449 mm of precipitation.
Such rare precipitation has paralyzed public transportation in the city and the people are struggling.
No one would have thought that the rain in Zhengzhou would last so long.
From the evening of the 18th to the entire day on the 20th, until the early morning of the 21st, it was still raining in the form of heavy rain, heavy rain, and extra heavy rain. The single-day precipitation exceeded the 60-year historical record since the establishment of the Zhengzhou Meteorological Bureau in 1951. .
The entire Zhengzhou city was "bubble" in the water.
The underground parking lot in the office building where the reporter was located was filled with water.
The open road downstairs was like a river, the water was turbulent, and the deepest part of the accumulated water reached people's thighs.
Pedestrians after get off work arm each other and hold hands slowly crossing the road. In the middle of the road, the stranded car has been flooded to the window of the car.
The picture shows a police car driving past Nongye Road in Zhengzhou City in the early morning of July 21.
Kan Lishe
Rescue non-stop throughout the night
Heavy rainfall caused dangers in Zhengzhou’s Changzhuang Reservoir, Guojiazui Reservoir and other rivers, as well as the Jialu River and other rivers. Some hospitals had power outages, some passengers were trapped in subway stations and trains, and some citizens were trapped under street corridors... , The rescue keeps on.
A breach occurred in the Fengle Farm section of the Kuhe River, a tributary of the Yellow River. 750 officers and men of the Armed Police Henan Corps set out with flood fighting equipment "Wenxun" to seal the gaps and open up flood channels to buy precious time for the safe evacuation of more than 300 people.
Changzhuang Reservoir, with the fighting of rescue team members and armed police officers and soldiers, by 21 o'clock on the 20th, the danger of the reservoir dam was initially under control.
At about 0:30 on the 21st, 500 people trapped in Zhengzhou Metro Line 5 were rescued one after another and sent to a centralized resettlement site.
There was a power outage in the He Hospital area of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, and the backup power supply was unavailable. A large number of medical staff and patients were trapped.
By 1 am on the 21st, more than 600 critically ill patients had been transferred.
The disaster caused power outages, water outages, and network outages in many areas of Zhengzhou, and relevant departments rushed to repair related equipment overnight.
At the Guanhutun Station of Zhengzhou Metro Line 2, the subway station that was closed at 11 o'clock in the evening was brightly lit, and exhausted rescuers lay down here to rest, waiting for the rescue again at dawn.
The picture shows a citizen staying at the entrance of a subway station in Zhengzhou and unable to go home in the early morning of July 21.
Kan Lishe
Difficulties in keeping watch in a difficult situation
On the evening of the 20th, the Zhengzhou Garden Branch of Bank of China, which is adjacent to the office, provided a conference room for a group of 6 reporters, which solved the problem of lack of electricity and no internet.
After setting up the office space, the bank staff braved the heavy rain to go to the nearby convenience store to buy back food for reporters to satisfy their hunger, which made people feel very warm.
Zhengzhou Wangfujing City Outlet Mall "opens up" to provide resting places for citizens trapped on the streets, distribute drinking water, and buy slippers for citizens without shoes.
The Zhengzhou City Library issued an "advertisement" calling on the trapped persons to rest in the library and provide hot water.
The Zhengzhou Science and Technology Museum also opened a parking lot to allow citizens driving through the water to park their vehicles and rest in the museum while providing hot water and instant noodles.
There are also a large number of units, shopping malls, and shops along the street that are not closed at night to provide shelter and simple meals for the trapped people.
At 2 o'clock in the morning on the 21st, the reporter walked into a fast food restaurant in Huayuan Road, Jinshui District. Many citizens rested here, all of which were blocked by the heavy rain.
Entering the lobby of the fast food restaurant, some people fell asleep at the desk, and some watched the rain through their mobile phones.
A pair of middle-aged men and women told reporters, “The store provides a free resting place, as well as water and snacks to warm up this sleepless night.”
On social media, countless Zhengzhou citizens and organizations announced their contact information and provided shelters and rest places for the trapped people for free.
At the same time, the reporter's mobile phone also flooded with greetings from countless relatives and friends, from Beijing, Shandong, Yunnan, Guangdong and other places, as well as messages from overseas.
Tonight, the words "rest assured and safe" are worth a thousand dollars.
At 4 o'clock in the morning on the 21st, outside the window, the heavy rain was still as noted, and the whistling of rescue vehicles could be heard from time to time.
This night, Zhengzhou had no sleep.
(Finish)