According to a news report from CCTV, due to continuous heavy rain and the impact of upstream flood discharge, on the evening of August 13, a breach about 30 meters wide occurred on the east bank embankment of the Jialu River in Zhoukou City, Henan Province, causing the Fifth People’s Hospital and a driving school downstream to be flooded, with water reaching a maximum depth of 1.5 meters.
As of 10:30 am on August 14, 357 patients and medical staff trapped and 75 people from the driving school have been evacuated, as reported by several mainland Chinese media outlets.
On August 14, Mr. Xie, a hospitalized patient who was evacuated, recounted that he lived on the first floor of the hospital ward. Around 4 am on the 14th, he was suddenly awakened from his sleep by shouts of “flooding”. Mr. Xie looked up and saw floodwater pouring into the ward. He described how the hospital, being situated at a lower level, was quickly inundated within about 10 minutes, with water reaching waist-deep on the first floor.
After the hospital was flooded, trapped individuals were transferred to a community hospital, Mr. Xie shared.
Not only the Fifth People’s Hospital and the driving school were flooded, but a Weibo user based in Henan with the username “靜雲子-易尚禮” mentioned that the flooding in Zhoukou, Henan, was severe, even causing the vocational college to be submerged, with water levels in Shahe River nearing the bridge deck.
In recent days, due to continuous heavy rainfall leading to rising water levels, eight ostriches from a scenic spot in Zhoukou, Henan were swept away and drifted along the river. On August 14, staff at the Sha Ying River Peninsula Scenic Area stated that two days prior, 8 ostriches were swept away from the park, and only 3 have been found so far, with each ostrich being over 2 meters tall.
The staff revealed that the market price for a single ostrich is about 1 to 2 thousand yuan. Apart from the ostriches, some other small animals were also swept away, but fortunately, the park did not house carnivorous or dangerous animals.
Zhoukou, Henan is known as the “convergence of three rivers,” where the Sha River, the Ying River, and the Jialu River meet in the central urban area of Zhoukou.