Beijing readies shelters, relocates flood victims

Hundreds of thousands of people affected by heavy rain and flooding in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have been relocated to temporary shelters, authorities said on Tuesday.

Continuous rainfall between Saturday night and 6 am on Tuesday affected more than 44,600 people in 13 districts of Beijing and prompted the relocation of around 127,000 people, local flood control authorities said.

Beijing's mountainous Mentougou district, which has experienced severe flooding, has set up several shelters to provide temporary accommodations and daily necessities for affected residents.

"We started preparing the shelter on Saturday, and have received around 130 people from over 60 households since Monday afternoon," said Li Xuemei, 52, a civil servant from Mentougou, who is in charge of a shelter at Longquan Elementary School.

A storage room on the school's ground floor is being used to stock food, folding beds and bedding, while 10 classrooms have been turned into temporary accommodations.

"We started the shelter with food supplies for three days. Now, with traffic having resumed, we can buy more supplies," Li said.

In some mountain villages in Mentougou, roads have been washed away, communication networks severely hit and power supply infrastructure damaged, cutting residents off from the outside world.

"Residents of two buildings near a mountain were evacuated and brought to the shelter. The buildings were not damaged, but their ground floors are filled with mud. Government workers are cleaning them," Li said.