Emergency response prevents major flooding

Prompt emergency responses are mitigating the influence of heavy downpours in Shangqiu, Central China's Henan province, ensuring people's safety and safeguarding agricultural production, local people said.

"The rainfall started engulfing our village at midnight on Monday. However, we received major weather forecasts (last weekend) and initiated precautionary and control measures after that, resulting in no injuries, casualties or major economic losses," said Wang Songbo, head of the presidium of the People's Congress of Zhouji Township in Shangqiu.

Since Sunday morning, most parts of Henan have experienced heavy rainfall, with Shangqiu receiving the most, at 295 millimeters by Thursday. The accumulated precipitation in Zhouji reached 327 mm, more than half of its annual precipitation for a typical year, according to the provincial meteorological center.

Located in eastern Shangqiu, Zhouji sits in the lower reaches of a major river, the Dongshahe. To mitigate the threat of flooding, Wang and his colleagues carried out preemptive measures, including conducting on-site inspections, especially in low-lying areas, and relocating 66 households of 100 people.

"Our work prioritized elderly people living alone, who often have a strong attachment to their homes, assume their houses are sturdy enough, and are unwilling to cause trouble for their children or local community," Wang said, adding that drawing on previous experience, they engaged the assistance of their children in persuasion efforts.

Zhouji, situated in a plain where agriculture thrives, primarily corn cultivation for its autumn crops. Covering 1,200 hectares, the crops were sowed last month and are in a crucial phase of growth.

"Due to previous severe drought conditions, the planting times for corn vary, but most of them have not taken root yet and lack flood resistance," he said.

Working with farmers, they operated water pumps around the clock to drain water, clear blockages in the drainage systems and dug additional small ditches. However, the continuous inflow of water from upstream kept the Dongshahe River at an elevated level in Zhouji, even reaching the riverbanks. Water levels in the farmland peaked at 80 centimeters and the situation showed little improvement until Thursday evening when the rainfall diminished.

"The downpour has affected 800 hectares of farmland, with two-thirds still being plagued by flooding," he said, adding that the completion of farmland drainage is expected by Saturday to minimize the impact on crop growth and production.

"It's not the rainfall that primarily affects the growth of corn, but rather the subsequent increase in temperatures, which causes the seedlings to soak in hot water and suffocate to death," said Liu Guangwei from the district's agriculture and rural affairs bureau.

"Given the present circumstances, if the water can be drained by Sunday, the corn production will not suffer significant impacts. Nevertheless, certain post-flood economic losses are inevitable, especially for crops such as watermelons and beans that grow close to the ground," Liu said.

This year, additional investments will be made to construct channels aimed at enhancing the resilience of the agricultural industry, and considering more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events, he said.

Zhang Yanling, head of the meteorological center in Shangqiu, said the intense rainfall was a result of the combined influence of the warm and humid airflow from the southwest and the presence of a low-level shear line. A new round of rainfall is ongoing until Saturday, with its intensity not anticipated to match that of this round.

She also noted the two potential typhoons forming in the South China Sea and the Northwest Pacific with yet unknown paths in the following 10 days forecast by the National Meteorological Center, adding that Typhoon Rumbia once caused severe urban flooding and debris flows in Shangqiu back in 2018. The city's meteorological center will closely monitor their projected paths and take essential precautions.

On Friday, the National Meteorological Center renewed yellow alert for rainstorms, the third-highest in the four-tier warning system, expecting strong rainfall to linger in the provinces of Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong on Saturday. From Sunday to Tuesday, the rain belt will move northward to affect areas such as Shandong, North China and Northeast China.