Flooding damages book warehouses

The publishing industry has suffered a major body blow after dozens of book storage warehouses in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, were hit by floodwaters in recent days.

Downpours brought by Typhoon Doksuri have inundated a logistics park in the city where nearly 100 book companies are located, Nanfang Metropolis Daily reported on Wednesday.

Countless books were soaked and equipment damaged.

"The warehouse of our company located in a logistics park in Zhuozhou has flooded," a staff member of the book company UnRead told Nanfang Metropolis Daily on Tuesday. "We can't figure out how much our loss is currently."

Book China, an online book sales platform, said their staff members used sandbags and wooden boards to try and protect their warehouses in Zhuozhou, but around 4 million books have been damaged by floodwaters.

A large number of printing companies have also suffered huge losses caused by the flooding.

Hebei Wensheng Printing Co, with registered capital of 20 million yuan ($2.79 million), holds a number of model patents for book-printing equipment.

On Tuesday, the company sent online messages for help as water flooded the second floor of its office building in Zhuozhou, trapping over 30 staff members.

"The water level continued to rise from Monday evening and water gradually flooded the second floor of our office building," said a staff member surnamed Sun. "The whole factory has flooded and all the machinery, equipment, books and paper have been soaked."

According to local government information, from 8 am Saturday to 11 am Tuesday, the average precipitation in the city reached 355.1 millimeters.

As of 10 am Tuesday, about 134,000 residents of Zhuozhou had been affected by flooding.