China floods leave at least 20 dead

Residents are evacuated by rubber boats through flood waters in Zhuozhou in northern China’s Hebei province, south of Beijing, Wednesday. China’s capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days. Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city that borders Beijing’s southwest.

Andy Wong/AP

BEIJING — Extreme and deadly downpours in Beijing have triggered landslides and floods that swept away cars, destroyed houses and left at least 20 people dead, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri unleashed record-high rainfalls over parts of northern China.

The maximum precipitation recorded during the rainfall in the Chinese capital between Saturday and Wednesday morning reached nearly 30 inches, according to the city’s meteorological service — a 140-year high.

The torrential rains caught residents unprepared. Parents of a 10-year-old girl told Beijing Time, an online video outlet, that their daughter has been missing since July 31, when floodwaters swept away their house in Mentougou district, a mountainous area located in the west suburb of Beijing that has been hit hardest by the rain.

Eleven people were killed during the rainfall in the capital and another nine died in the neighboring Hebei province, according to the state news agency. Hundreds of thousands have been evacuated to safer places.

Thousands of train passengers have been stranded on the outskirts of Beijing, some stuck for more than 48 hours without food. Among them is a group of children who were coming to Beijing for a summer camp.

“Who would think that Beijing can be hammered by heavy rainfalls?” a parent anxiously awaiting news of their child told The Beijing News.

China’s north is usually dry…