This year’s floods were the most extensive in Hebei since 1963, with 51.5 per cent of its landmass receiving over 100 millimetres of rainfall, provincial officials said told the briefing.
Some residents in the city of Zhuozhou, one of Hebei’s worst-affected areas, have criticised the local government for not providing them with more help after excess floodwaters from provincial reservoirs were diverted to so-called flood storage areas in the region.
Beijing officials said on Thursday that post-disaster reconstruction in the capital could take up to a year, after the floods caused 33 deaths, mostly in the city’s mountainous rural outskirts.
The central government has allocated a total of 7.74 billion yuan (US$1.07 billion) to disaster relief funds for flood-stricken areas, including the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said on Friday.