Heavy rainfall has battered multiple cities in northwest China's Gansu Province, prompting the provincial meteorological authority to raise its rainstorm emergency response level and local departments to carry out resident evacuations and road drainage operations.
The Gansu Provincial Meteorological Bureau upgraded its Level III emergency response for heavy rain to Level II at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. Meteorological bureaus in seven cities and prefectures, namely Dingxi, Pingliang, Qingyang, Tianshui, Longnan, Baiyin and Gannan, have activated or upgraded their local emergency responses based on on-site weather assessments.
In Zhenyuan County, Qingyang City, continuous rainfall of approximately 100 millimeters battered the area on Saturday night. At 8 a.m. on Sunday, a sedan was reported trapped under a bridge culvert, with most of the vehicle submerged in floodwater and occupants stranded on its roof awaiting rescue.
Firefighters waded through the rushing floodwater to reach the scene, carried the trapped residents to a fire truck. Throughout that morning, rescue teams evacuated a total of 16 stranded people from multiple flooded underpasses and waterlogged road sections across the area.
Further west in Pingliang City, heavy rain began pounding the region from 7 a.m. on Sunday, with the maximum recorded rainfall surpassing 161 millimeters.
The persistent downpour caused extensive waterlogging on both urban and rural roads. Some rural road sections also saw secondary hazards including slope rockfalls, fallen trees and mud-clogged surfaces, disrupting normal traffic and posing safety risks to passing vehicles.
Local public security and highway maintenance agencies immediately activated emergency plans. They rolled out road clearance work, hidden danger inspections and traffic guidance, while deploying pumping equipment to drain standing water from severely flooded segments to restore safe passage.
Gansu upgrades rainstorm emergency response to heavy rain
