China on Wednesday dispatched thousands of rescue workers to Zhuozhou, a flooded city of over 600,000 residents southwest of Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri continued to wreak havoc on swathes of the city twice the size of Paris.
Zhuozhou is in Hebei province, which has borne the brunt of the worst storms to hit northern China in over a decade, killing least 20 people. The city also borders Beijing, which was inundated with the most rainfall in 140 years between Saturday and early Wednesday, official data showed.
Authorities in Hebei have declared a state of emergency as rainfall averaged 355 mm (14 inches) since Saturday, the heaviest since at least July 2012. More than 134,000 Zhuozhou residents have been affected, with over one-sixth of the city's population evacuated.
At the confluence of several rivers, Zhuozhou is one of the hardest hit cities in Hebei as floodwaters migrated downstream, according to state media, waterlogging residential areas more than twice the size of the French capital, and affecting nearly 650 hectares of agricultural land.
The local public security bureau said on Tuesday the city faced water shortages and a partial power outage, adding that it urgently needed rafts, life jackets and emergency supplies. Residents said waters rose as high as four meters.
Some 9,000 rescuers have been dispatched to Zhuozhou, with more rescue teams rushing over from neighboring Henan and Shanxi provinces, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
As the floodwaters flow south, the authorities in the city of Gaobeidian have evacuated 113,000 residents, as well as opened reservoirs to trap the excess water, Xinhua reported.
