Floods in China’s Zhengzhou kill dozens, displace hundreds of thousands
Record rainfall in central China caused severe floods that have claimed more than two dozen lives, turned city streets into gushing rivers and forced authorities to relocate hundreds of thousands of people.
Henan province has been pelted by heavy rains since Saturday, with its capital of Zhengzhou among the worst-hit areas. Local news reports and social-media posts showed inundated neighborhoods, submerged cars, residents stranded in schools and workplaces, and flooded subways with commuters standing in water up to chest-deep.
At least 25 people have died in Zhengzhou since the heavy rains started late last week, while seven others remained missing, Henan officials said at a Wednesday briefing. More than 1.2 million people across the province have been affected by the floods, officials said…
Zhengzhou’s meteorological station said hourly and daily rainfall over recent days have reached record highs, with nearly a year’s worth of rainfall pouring down on the city over just three days, according to a video posted to the station’s official Weibo microblog late Tuesday. Storm clouds dumped close to 18 inches of rain on the city in one 24-hour period, the Henan provincial meteorological center said.
Anyone who has been paying attention will note that large-scale nature-related disasters are increasing.
Every few weeks it seems, Earth unleashes devastating violence of some sort or other. An earthquake—a tornado—a tsunami—a massive storm—a flood—a drought—a rash of wildfires. It levels property, destroys homes, decimates crops, claims lives. And another constellation of survivors are left breathless in its wake, tasked with trying to piece their shattered lives back together.
It is a dreadful reminder of an awesome and important reality.
In our modern world, industrialization has done much to insulate a great many of us from the elements. We have paved over our land. We have abandoned our farms in favor of climate-controlled homes, offices and malls. Concrete, steel and glass shield us from routine rain, hail, sleet, snow, heat, chill. These former crop-killers are now mere inconveniences, for most of us.
It’s only when nature gets really nasty—when rains turn into floods, when blizzards cancel flights, when droughts demand water restrictions, when a temblor topples infrastructure—that we even think to acknowledge the power it still holds over us. It dwarfs us. Impressive as our tower-of-Babel society is, it remains awkwardly vulnerable to the sheer elemental power of the planet in its fury.
History shows, in fact, that whole societies have risen or fallen because of favorable or foul forces of nature.
And in recent times, violent outbursts of these forces have been speeding up in tempo.
You can read more in our free booklet Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?
