Lack of awareness highlighted after rescue teams evacuate stricken villagers

At 3 pm on Wednesday afternoon, Yang Shuai lost contact with his parents, who had phoned him five minutes earlier to tell him they had arrived at home safe, even though floodwater reached up to their knees.

The loss of communication panicked their 30-year-old son, who quickly drove the 20 kilometers from the downtown area of Zhuozhou city, Hebei province, to the village where his parents live.

He feared the worst, as floodwater was surging after days of heavy rainfall and a river in the area had burst its banks.

Located about 1 km from the Baigou River, a tributary of the Haihe River, Zhongdaitun village is just one of many severely affected by floodwater in Zhuozhou that has engulfed homes and farmland.

Yang's family lost more than 100 pigs and an old house that collapsed after being flooded. As of Saturday, two other houses nearby were still partly immersed in floodwater.

"My parents, who looked after the house and the pigs all their lives, had returned home a day after the flooding," he said.

Yang said that on July 31, villagers had been warned about imminent flooding, which burst through dykes the next day.

He collected his parents and grandparents from the village on Monday and took them to an apartment where he and his wife live in downtown Zhuozhou.

"On Wednesday morning, my parents heard that the water level was not that high in the village and they were determined to go back to check that everything was OK," he said.

Several hours later, Yang lost contact with them. When he rushed to the village, he found the water had risen by about 2 meters.

"I swam for about a kilometer, finally arriving at our home to find that my parents had escaped from the waters on the second floor of the two-story house. The first floor was under water," he said.

"Knowing they were safe, I swam away to find a rescue team to evacuate them."

His parents were eventually taken to safety by rescue teams, along with more than 300 other villagers, most of them seniors who didn't want to leave.

"None of us expected the flooding to be so serious, and no one was adequately prepared," Yang said, adding that people in such a situation, especially seniors, should enhance their awareness of flood control measures and related dangers.