Firefighters from Shandong province rescue a baby in flooded Weishi county of Kaifeng, Henan province. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Rescuers from across the country were sent to central China's Henan province in response to sustained heavy rain and flooding that hit the region since July 16.
By 4 pm on Thursday, Beijing had sent eight emergency teams, including the Beijing Blue Sky Rescue Team, to Henan. About 165 personnel, with one helicopter, more than 500 rescue ropes and various water rescue equipment were mobilized.
Hubei province, Henan's southern neighbor, dispatched 365 firefighters in the early hours of Wednesday. As of 9 am on Thursday, they had evacuated 830 trapped people via rubber boats, local authorities said.
An Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter, the world's heaviest and largest still in service, will join the rescue efforts from Xiantao, a county-level city in Hubei province to Zhengzhou, Henan's capital.
It is estimated that the helicopter can pull a weight equivalent to what five elephants can pull, and hang gear of up to 20 tons either inside or outside its cabin. There are four Mi-26 heavy transport helicopters in China, according to Chutian Metropolis Daily.
Drainage Group companies throughout the country organized rescue commandos to conduct emergency drainage work in Zhengzhou, as directed by municipal authorities.
The Beijing Drainage Group mobilized 73 rescue workers to take equipment capable of pumping 7,800 cubic meters of water per hour to the central urban area of Zhengzhou at 4 am on Thursday.
With continuous 24-hour pumping, a flooded road tunnel in Zhengzhou's eastern Jinshui district had been cleared by 5:30 am on Friday, according to the Wuhan flood control and drought relief office. Four mobile pumping trucks were mobilized from Wuhan, Hubei province, on Thursday, draining a total of 100,000 cubic meters of water from the tunnel and allowing traffic to resume.
To ensure electrical power in Henan province, State Grid Ningxia Electric Power Co sent 332 rescue workers in three groups to fight floods and conduct electrical repairs starting on Thursday morning.
On Friday morning, more than 100 people were stranded at an overpass on the expressway near Weishi county, Kaifeng city, in Henan. Firefighters from Dezhou, Shandong province responded by demolishing a billboard on the highway and setting up a ladder. They had rescued 70 of the stranded people by noon on Friday.
Zhao Ruixue in Jinan and Hu Dongmei in Yinchuan contributed to this story.
