Participants observe a moment of silence for the victims during the press conference held by Beijing local authorities on July 31, 2025, which provided details on the recent deadly rainstorms in Beijing that caused 44 deaths. Photo: VCG

The recent intense rainstorms in Beijing have brought the death toll to 44, including 31 elderly people from a nursing home in Miyun district, and resulted in another nine missing, Beijing local authorities revealed at a press conference Thursday on flood control and disaster relief, reflecting on the gaps in the emergency response and vowing to accelerate post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. 

Expert said that amid aging society and increasingly frequent extreme weather in a global scope, relevant departments need to take various measures to ensure effective forecasting, early warning and emergency response.

From July 23 to 29, Beijing experienced consecutive extreme heavy rainfall, causing severe damage in the capital's suburb districts such as mountainous Miyun, Huairou, Yanqing and Pinggu. Currently, Beijing is fully engaged in the post-flood relief and reconstruction work, the authority said during the press briefing held by the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, Xinhua News Agency reported. 

According to Xia Linmao, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and executive vice mayor of Beijing, the flooding triggered by the rainfall has affected over 300,000 people and damaged 24,000 houses. Since the onset of the disaster, a total of 104,000 people across the city have been evacuated, and more than 5,400 people in distress have been rescued. 

The city has been carrying out its emergency rescue, repairs, and clearing operations around the clock, striving to ensure effective evacuation, resettlement and disaster relief, aiming to restore normal production and daily life in the affected areas as soon as possible. 

The official also noted that among the nine missing individuals, four were village Party branch secretaries who participated in frontline rescue and relief efforts. Village Party branch secretary Yin Chunyan from Liulimiao township in Huairou district and her husband Cai Yongzhang, also a Party member, were washed away by floods when they were evacuating villagers. An all-out search and rescue effort for the missing people is currently underway. 

All the participants of the press briefing observed a moment of silence for the victims during the press conference. 

A painful lesson

According to the authority, Taishitun town was the area affected the most in hardest-hit Miyun district. Early Monday morning, the water flow of Qingshui River in Miyun surged rapidly, reaching a peak of 2,800 cubic meters per second - an amount that has occurred only once in over a century - and 1,500 times its usual flow. The sudden influx of water flooded the town of Taishitun, causing severe devastation. 

According to Yu Weiguo, Party Secretary of Miyun district, preliminary statistics show that 162 villages across 17 towns in the district were affected. More than 31,000 houses and 6,994 vehicles were damaged, while 10 roads sustained damage. 

Approximately 113,000 residents in the district were affected, including 37 people who died due to the disaster, of whom 31 elderly people were from the elderly care center in Taishitun town. Over 16,000 people were evacuated from 205 villages in 20 towns and communities across the district during the flood control and disaster relief efforts. 

At the press conference, Yu expressed deep sorrow. When mentioning the 31 deaths at the elderly care center, his voice choked: "These elderly people were around the same age as my parents, yet they are gone due to the torrential rain disaster. Here, I express my condolences to all the victims and my sympathies to their families."

Yu added that "upon deep reflection on this incident, we recognize that there are still many areas in our work that need improvement."

The elderly care center is located upstream of the Miyun Reservoir. There were a total of 77 people at the elder care center that day, including eight staff members. Among the 69 elderly residents, 55 were either fully or partially disabled, according to the government release.

After receiving the emergency call, firefighting and rescue teams were quickly dispatched and arrived near the nursing home at around 7 am. However, due to the rapid water flows, rescuers had difficulty entering the center. After extensive efforts, the trapped individuals were gradually rescued starting at around 10 am. The rescue operation continued into the next day. During the process, several elderly residents were sadly found to have died. 

Before the flood season, Miyun district had carried out the early evacuation of residents in high-risk villages and households, with over 16,000 people from 205 villages in 20 towns and communities across the district being evacuated, in accordance with the emergency response plan and weather forecasts. 

According to Yu, since the central area of the town where the elderly care center is located had long been considered safe, the emergency response plan did not include the center in the evacuation scope, which revealed the gaps in the emergency response plan and inadequate understanding of extreme weather events. 

Yu noted that the painful lesson has served as a wake-up call to the authority that traditional ways of thinking must not be adopted when it comes to the elderly, children and people with limited mobility, in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

As China accelerates into an aging society and faces increasingly frequent extreme weather in a global scope, relevant departments need to take various measures to ensure effective forecasting, early warning and emergency response, especially pay special attention beforehand to vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, and people with limited mobility, who often have little ability to help themselves, Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to Ma, the flooding occurred this time was not the typical mountain torrents or mudslides usually seen in mountainous areas, but rather caused by upstream water flow. The reason the nursing home's location was not included in the evacuation plan was because the plan primarily focused on areas where mountain torrents or mudslides were likely to occur. However, this rare flood event shows that the previous contingency plan was insufficient. 

At the press conference, Beijing authorities vowed to accelerate the post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. The city will formulate an overall recovery and reconstruction plan based on the goals of "basic recovery within one year, comprehensive improvement within three years, and long-term high-quality development."