31 die in Chinese nursing home as Beijing flood death toll rises to 44
Official says facility was not evacuated because it was considered to be in a safe zone
Beijing vice-mayor Xia Linmao said the nursing home was in the mountainous outlying district of Miyun, where 37 people in all have died in the storms over the past week.
The home was built in 2021 in Taishitun township upstream of the Miyun Reservoir, and offers residential care for the severely disabled, orphaned, elderly and low-income residents.
Miyun Communist Party boss Yu Weiguo said 77 people, including 55 who were either fully or partially incapacitated, were in the home when water poured into the surrounding area and submerged it.
Emergency workers were quick to respond, Yu said, but the fast-moving water made rescue efforts extremely challenging. Search and rescue operations of the centre continued into the following day, during which many elderly people died, according to Yu.
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‘A big storm unseen in a century’: heavy rainfall in Beijing kills at least 30
Yu said that more than 16,000 people in Miyun had evacuated in advance, but the nursing home was in an area that had long been considered safe. It was not seen as in a high-risk zone and so people in the facility were not included in the evacuation plan.