Rescuers from the People's Liberation Army help evacuate a wounded local in Xiangshuihu village in Liudaohe town, Hebei province, on Thursday. ZHAI YUJIA/CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Amid ongoing recovery endeavors in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region following extensive flooding, Communist Party of China members have been actively engaged in rescue and relief operations, with some unaccounted for after bravely risking their lives.
In Beijing's Huairou district alone, more than 15,000 members of the Party from over 1,100 grassroots organizations have mobilized for flood response, according to Zhang Qiang, Party secretary of Huairou.
Among the members, Yin Chunyan, the Party secretary of Sunhugou village, and her husband Cai Yongzhang, also a Party member, disappeared while assisting in the evacuation of residents, swept away by floodwaters.
"We are deeply grieved and are continuing full-scale search operations," Zhang said at a press conference on Thursday.
Four of the city's nine missing persons are village-level Party secretaries who were engaged in frontline rescue work, according to Xia Linmao, executive vice-mayor. The city's death toll stood at 44 as of Thursday noon.
In Beijing's hardest-hit northern mountains, critical road repairs concluded on Thursday when the final damaged section of Xihuo Road in Miyun district was restored, reopening a key route for rescue and supply delivery.
The floods had damaged 72 road sections across the districts of Miyun, Huairou, Yanqing and Pinggu, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.
"This road was one I helped build 10 years ago," said Zheng Mingming, a road engineer with Beijing Construction Engineering Group, choking back emotion.
"The repair machinery didn't stop once it arrived on site, and fuel was continuously transported in," Zheng was quoted as saying by Beijing Daily.
Crews battled landslides and collapsed bridges, even turning riverbeds into temporary roads. Thanks to their efforts, all 29 county-level and higher roads in Beijing are now cleared, and access has been restored to affected communities.
In neighbouring Hebei province, search operations have expanded in Xinglong county, where 18 people remain missing after floods left eight dead in Liudaohe township.
"We've formed a 181-member search-and-rescue team and are conducting systematic downstream searches from the collapsed buildings," said Jiang Feng, deputy commander of the Chengde fire and rescue brigade, in an interview with China Central Television.
Acts of solidarity have also emerged. In Zhujiagou village, homestay owner Xie Changcai sheltered 24 neighbors after their homes were destroyed.
"People were worried about using up my supplies," he said, "But the government has started sending supplies. Let's help each other. Together, we can get through this."
A drone is poised to deliver food and medicine to the flood-affected areas in Liudaohe town on Thursday. ZHAI YUJIA/CHINA NEWS SERVICE
In Tianjin, over 140 Party members from Jizhou branch of the State Grid Tianjin Electric Power were deployed to restore electricity. Working in five teams, they carried out door-to-door safety inspections and replaced damaged infrastructure.
In one of the more challenging missions, Yang Yang, head of the company's operation and maintenance department, led his team through muddy mountain paths in Xiaoping'an village, transporting 200-kilogram generators on foot.
With support from drone inspections and satellite communications, electricity was restored to all affected villages by Wednesday, officials said.
By early Thursday, 23 of the 29 damaged telecommunications facilities in Tianjin had been restored. In Jizhou district, homestays and hotels have begun reopening, and 19 scenic sites including Panshan Mountain, reopened on Friday morning.
The local government said that while some roads remain under repair, the main routes have been temporarily cleared and weather alerts for heavy rain and geological disasters have been lifted.
