China’s central government told local officials in the capital and other areas of the north to be prepared to deal with floods amid heavy rain brought on by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri.

Flood control officials upgraded their emergency response order to level two – the second highest in their four-tier system – for Beijing and Tianjin, and the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi and Henan on Sunday (Jul 30).

The situation in those regions was “extremely severe and complex” due to the intensity of the rain and the poor discharge capability of rivers in northern China, the Ministry of Emergency Management said. It called on local officials to “ensure no deaths and to reduce injuries and economic losses”, while stepping up monitoring of mines and construction sites and conducting any evacuations in a timely manner.

More than 27,000 people in high-risk areas of Beijing have been evacuated, state media said on Sunday.

Residents of China’s capital are especially wary of heavy summer rains after flash flooding in July 2012 killed 79 people. Beijing announced plans to improve drainage capacity after the disaster. 

In Beijing, residents were urged on Sunday not to go outside unless necessary, advice that appeared widely heeded with the usually buzzing streets empty of many cars or pedestrians.

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Companies were also told not to force their employees to come to work unless necessary.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Water Resources raised its flood warning after some rivers swelled beyond alert levels.

In one mountainous village on the outskirts of Beijing, a local river was transformed into a gushing torrent, but no casualties were reported as 62 households in the surrounding area were evacuated the previous day, according to the local newspaper.

Also on Sunday, national weather officials renewed the highest alert for rain in Beijing and Tianjin and areas of Henan, Shanxi and Shandong, saying they expected heavy precipitation into Monday. Rainfall in those regions was expected to ease “noticeably” from Tuesday, they said.

Officials in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, arranged the evacuations of some 20,600 people due to heavy rain, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, without mentioning casualties or economic losses. AFP, Bloomberg