Beijing officials say 31 older people trapped in a senior center died in floods

BANGKOK (AP) — A group of elderly people trapped in a flooded nursing home were among at least 70 people who died during powerful storms that lashed Beijing and neighboring provinces.

Officials said Thursday 31 people died at the Taishitun Town Elderly Care Center when Beijing’s Miyun district became one of the hardest hit areas by storms that dumped nearly a year’s worth of rain in the area over a few days. Flood waters surged in the area Monday and many were caught unprepared.

Officials offered a rare public apology Thursday when they announced the deaths.

“For a long time, this senior center was in the town’s center and was safe, and such was not included in the preparedness plans. This means that our prepared plans had holes,” Miyun Party secretary Yu Weiguo said, expressing his condolences and adding it was a “bitter lesson.”

The care center housed 69 residents, including 55 who were disabled in some capacity. The facility sat on low-lying ground near a river that had flooded after the unusually intense rains, local media outlet Caixin reported. When the floods hit Monday, there were 77 people in the building including staffers.

The nursing home was featured in a rescue story from state broadcaster CCTV showing rescuers in boats pulling people out of windows without mentioning any deaths.

“Through hours of a concerted effort, they successfully rescued 48 people,” a caption of the video story said without mentioning anyone had died.

The city later announced 28 people died in Miyun district Tuesday after rescuers could go to the scene, but did not disclose who had died and where.

China’s government censors have tightened information control since leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, seeing it as crucial to preventing unrest. In recent years, increasingly more topics from negative news about the economy to basic information about violent attacks, such as the number of injured people, have been subject to censorship.

When the waters came this week, they rose quickly to 2 meters (6.5 feet) at the deepest points, Beijing officials said.

Many couldn’t escape. One Beijing resident’s 87-year old mother managed to get out of the elder care center in Miyun, Caixin reported.

“She doesn’t know where she got the strength, but she managed to climb onto the windowsill,” she said, noting her mother’s roommate was unable to get up and drowned.

Officials said 44 people died in Beijing.

In neighboring Hebei province, authorities announced an additional eight deaths Thursday and 16 deaths total this week.

In northern Shanxi province, authorities announced Wednesday evening that 10 people were dead after a minibus carrying farm workers washed away in heavy rain. Four people were still missing as the rescue continued, according to a city government statement three days after the bus disappeared.

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Fu Ting in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.