Record breaking rainfall caused Massive floods in central China leaving 12 people dead and more than 100,000 evacuated from their homes.
Henan Province’s Capital Zhengzhou with a dozen more cities are affected.
Footage circulating online shows people wading in chest-high levels of water on roads and at train stations.
The rain began over the weekend, with storms intensifying on Tuesday. Zhengzhou and other places in Henan province saw widespread flooding on Tuesday Night. There were also reports online of people swept away by fast-moving floodwaters, and cars and debris drifting down the submerged streets.
President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday the “flood prevention situation was very severe” and at a “critical stage”.
State News Agency Xinhua reports that President Xi Jinping instructed all departments to prioritize “the safety of people and their property. President Xi Jinping also added that the floods had already resulted in “significant loss of life and damage to property”.
Soldiers have been mobilized to divert rivers which have burst their banks. Several dams and reservoirs have breached warning levels and Flights and train operations in many parts of Henan have also been suspended.
According to local media reports, In Zhengzhou, around 700 passengers were trapped on a train for at least 40 hours.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou Hospital also briefly lost power on Tuesday night, though this has now been restored, said a statement on Weibo by the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee. It added that 600 critically ill patients had been transferred to another location.
In Luoyang City, a 20-metre (65ft) breach has emerged in the dam after it was damaged by storms, officials said. Soldiers have been deployed to the area and a statement from the army warned it could “collapse at any time”.
According to China’s Meteorological Authority, Henan has experienced “rare and severe rainfall” since Saturday. Zhengzhou saw 624mm of rainfall on Tuesday, with a third of that amount falling between 16:00 and 17:00 alone, which “smashed historical records”.
It forecasted that parts of the region would continue to see “severe or extremely severe storms” and that the heavy rain would likely only end on Thursday.
The amount of rain over the last three days in Zhengzhou has been reported to be the same as what it would usually receive in an entire year.