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It was a four-day painful day for Lu’s mother, whose 18-year-old daughter went missing after a devastating flood that struck Henan Province in central China.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Choi’s mother said she had evacuated to a house on the second floor of Choi’s town when Choi’s mausoleum, about 5 feet and 4 inches tall, was washed away by the flood. The town is about a 40-minute drive west of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province.
“It rained heavily on July 20,” recalled Lou’s mother. “The flood reached the third floor of our building. My child was alone in our upstairs house before being washed away.”
She said many homes were damaged as the neighborhood was flooded and the streets turned into rivers.
With a population of 12 million, Zhengzhou is one of the most devastated areas since the heavy rains began on July 17. In the next four days, Zhengzhou recorded rainfall of 617.1 millimeters (24.3 inches). It is almost equivalent to an average of 640.8 millimeters (25.2 inches) per year.
Some are related to the July 20 tragedy, which claimed that at least 12 people had died in Zhengzhou’s flooded subway lines after Chinese officials said they had evacuated. Over 500 trapped commuters.
Serious floods have also been reported in several neighboring cities, including Gongyi, which is about an hour’s drive west of Zhengzhou, and Shingo, which is about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive northeast of the capital.
Lou’s mother attributed the flood to an inadequate drainage system in her area.
The floods have forced hundreds of thousands of people to relocate, including Lou’s mother, who now lives with her relatives.
Lu is not the only one missing due to the flood. Chinese state media released reports of missing persons, and families used Chinese social media to seek the whereabouts of their missing relatives.
The other missing person is LiLi, 32 years old, 9 months pregnant. According to local media, she was at her home in Baisha Town on the morning of July 20, before she went missing. Baisha is located about 10 miles east of Zhengzhou.
Unknown number of deaths
Late Saturday afternoon, Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency announced that 58 people had died in a rain-torn state. However, Wang Ying, a resident of Henan Province, questioned official statistics in an interview with The Epoch Times.
He hopes for official announcements about deaths in various places, but explained that deaths would not be the actual number of deaths. This includes deaths in underground metros and Zhengzhou underground passages. The Zhengzhou underpass was also flooded on July 20, and Chinese state media reported that hundreds of vehicles were trapped inside.
According to Mr. Wang, the flood was not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster because Chinese authorities did not announce it before draining water from the flooded reservoir. The Chinese administration blamed the flood for “rain once in a thousand years.”
The local government started discharging water from the Changzhuang Reservoir, which is located upstream of Zhengzhou, around 10:30 am local time on July 20th. A few hours later, the capital of Henan was flooded, but the release announcement was not announced until early morning. July 21st.
Wang Dejia, an online writer under the pseudonym Jing Chu, told The Epoch Times that the actual number of dead and missing would be a mystery.
For the Chinese administration, “it’s not about rescue operations, it’s about imposing a blockade of information, and the importance of people’s lives is insignificant,” the writer said.
LiYun contributed to this report.
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