Massive flooding in China kills 25 people and forces the evacuation of thousands.

 

Severe flooding in China. BBC/Getty.

Massive flooding in China has killed at least 25 people and forced the evacuation of thousands more. BBC. The flooding trapped hundreds of people in subway systems, killing 12 and trapping around 500 people. Cars were also swept away by the flooding. Several dams have been destroyed by the flooding and the military has been deployed. The flooding was caused by extreme amounts of rain. The capital of the Henan Province, Zhengzhou was hit with a years worth of rain in a single day. The rain is expected to continue through Thursday. 

Breaking: Major flooding is occurring due to heavy rain in Zhengzhou, China. The city recorded the highest single-day rainfall on record. pic.twitter.com/hiEAWjYd78

— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) July 20, 2021

 

UPDATE: Severe flooding in Zhengzhou, China, kills at least 12 people; rescue work continues pic.twitter.com/BKEzwVYK0c

— BNO News (@BNONews) July 20, 2021

LATEST: Stunning footage shows the subway system in the city of Zhengzhou, China, inundated with rushing water.

The death toll from the flooding has risen to at least 25, with seven people missing. https://t.co/gbXDTcbOHy pic.twitter.com/wLnCUtu4wE

— ABC News (@ABC) July 21, 2021

My Comment:

Flooding in China is nothing new but the video coming out from this particular flood is fairly dramatic. The videos of people trapped in the subways is pure nightmare fuel and it is lucky that they were able to rescue so many people. That is not something I would ever want to experience myself. 

And it doesn't look like things are going to get much better in the next couple of days. Thursday too is expected to have record rainfall as well. It's likely there will be more flooding, more dams collapsing or being blasted by the Chinese. And there will likely be more deaths and more evacuations. 

The good news for China is that this isn't upstream of the Three Gorges Dam, which was threatened last year due to similar major flooding. That dam at least seems secure for now even if a lot of other dams might have to be blasted or will get destroyed. 

As I said before China has a long history of massive flooding so this isn't that big of news. Indeed, compared to some of the floods in the past these current ones are nothing. Indeed, the floods in China have killed millions of people. So as bad as these floods are they could be a lot worse. 

But I do wonder if these constant natural disasters will weaken the hold that the Chinese Communist government has on China. The Chinese famously have the concept of the "mandate of heaven". In traditional belief systems in China, natural disasters are a sign that the gods no longer consider the ruling government legitimate. Once that happens revolution and fragmentation are inevitable...