Heavy rain affects 3 million in China’s Henan province, 33 dead

Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, China, suffered the worst flood in 60 years, leaving at least 33 dead and around 256,000 evacuated as of Thursday. With the number of the displaced hitting the mark of 3 million, Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, sent her message of concern to Henan, setting a rare precedent.

According to the provincial authorities of Henan, at least 33 were drowned by the downpour, killing 8 more from a day before. Including the 12 passengers in Zhengzhou flood alone, the death toll soared with more victims found from the landslides in parts of the province. The number of people affected by the flood stands at 3 million and 4,000, with 256,000 having been evacuated. “We’ve suffered direct economic losses worth 1.2 billion and 20 million yuan (around 223.9 billion and 65 million won),” a provincial official of Hanan said. Hanan is 1.6 times larger than South Korea, with a population of 100 million.

Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, expressed her concern and sent her condolences to the victims, saying she hopes that “normal life could resume as soon as possible,” according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

The supply of the iPhones is expected to be affected by the heavy rain as Taiwan’s Foxconn factory is located in Zhengzhou. Foxconn operates three factories in Zhengzhou, with some 350,000 workers on 90 production lines. Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory is responsible for more than half of the global production of the iPhones. “All three Foxconn factories in the city experienced hours of power outages Tuesday evening as the city went through a blackout,” the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting the employees of Foxconn. An assembly worker said he was submerged up to his thighs, with some workers moving production equipment and inventories to prevent them getting wet.


Ki-Yong Kim kky@donga.com