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Many residents are still trapped or missing.

On Tuesday, the central region of China, which includes the provincial capital city of Zhengzhou, was beset with a surge of flooding waters. While a precise cause of these floods hasn’t been identified, scientists believe a likely culprit is the recent record-breaking rains the region has experienced, exacerbated by global climate change, combined with its close proximity to the Yellow River. As the region experienced rains of up to 7.8 inches on Tuesday, this is a safe assumption.

Over 100,000 people have been successfully evacuated from Zhengzhou, but many people are still either unaccounted for or confirmed to be trapped and stranded within subways, schools, apartments, and offices. Multiple areas of the city have lost power, including hospitals, where numerous COVID-19 patients were hooked up to now deactivated ventilators. Hospital staff were forced to use hand-powered oxygen devices to maintain these patients’ breathing as arrangements for transfer out of the city into other hospitals were made.

In order to alleviate some of the flooding, the Chinese military made the decision on Tuesday night to blast a hole in a nearby dam. It is not yet clear how much difference this operation has made in draining the floodwaters.

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the severity of the situation, and ordered all emergency response personnel to “prioritize the safety of people’s lives and properties.”