Flooding Leaves Farms, Homes Damaged After 3 Dike Breaches in Central China

A farming family in central China spent hours moving 194 pigs through deep floodwater after repeated calls to city, county, and township authorities brought no help, according to the family and video recorded during the rescue.

The Aug. 15 operation in Fugou County came after three dike breaches sent floodwater into communities and farmland across Henan Province.

Although all three breaches in Pingdingshan, Xuchang, and Zhoukou had been sealed by late Aug. 15 according to local authorities and state media reports, some homes, fields, and parts of Zhoukou remained flooded for days.

Zhang Xiuying, a farmer in Wangcao village, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times on Aug. 18 that water had surrounded her family's pig farm for days. The Epoch Times is using a pseudonym because of concerns about possible retaliation in China.

"The pigs have been soaking in the water for days," a woman says in the video.

She said the family had repeatedly called city, county, and township authorities for two days but received no help.

Relatives, more than 10 of Zhang's colleagues, and five civilian rescuers eventually joined the effort, she said. Starting at about 11:30 a.m., they moved the animals onto three trucks, finishing shortly before 6 p.m.

Zhang said about 22 tons of grain in total were soaked, along with soybean meal, animal feed, medicine, appliances, and farming equipment.

"Our house is flooded above the bed," she said.

As of Aug. 18, she said, water had not fully receded.

Zhang said fields she passed through in the surrounding agricultural area had also been submerged.

"If it takes half a month for the water in our village to drain, forget about the crops," she said. "They'll have been drowned long ago."

She also said some local water control facilities and gates had already been damaged before the flooding.

At around 7 p.m. on Aug. 12, a civilian-built dike along the Beiru River in Changqiao township, Jia County, Pingdingshan, breached amid extreme rainfall and large upstream reservoir releases, according to a report by state media Xinhua citing the city's emergency command.

The opening grew to about 156 feet, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Authorities evacuated 2,182 people from six villages and reported no casualties from the breach.

A second breach developed at around 10 a.m. on Aug. 13 along the Qingyi River near Cangtou village in Yanling County, Xuchang.

CCTV reported that continuing rain and upstream flow washed out a farmland drainage gate. The opening later widened to more than 33 feet and flooded farmland and affected some downstream villages.

The third breach occurred at around 11 p.m. on Aug. 13 along the Jialu River in Zhoukou's Chuanhui District.

The official account of the Jia County breach explicitly cited large upstream reservoir releases together with extreme rainfall.

A Zhoukou farmer identified only by his surname, Zhang, told NTD that water covered more than approximately 16 acres of corn near his village about a month before harvest. His full name is being withheld because of concerns about possible retaliation in China.

"It's all gone," Zhang said. "The fields are full of water. The water came over from the river, and there's nowhere for it to drain."

Another Zhoukou farmer, identified only by his surname, Liu, described damage extending across a major pepper- and tobacco-growing belt in central Henan.

"The peppers were just about ready to be harvested, and basically all of them were drowned," Liu told NTD.

He estimated that the affected pepper-growing area covered several million mu—hundreds of thousands of acres.

He said the losses could be particularly painful for farmers because, in a good market, peppers can bring profits of about $6,374 per acre and tobacco more than $9,105 per acre.

Zhoukou Executive Vice Mayor Zhang Jiandang said the central city had 25 flooded locations covering about 5.9 million square feet as of Aug. 16.

Thirty residential compounds had experienced flooding, and 11 lost electricity, according to state media CCTV.

Back in Fugou County, Zhang Xiuying said her family still needs to clean and disinfect the pig farm, repair damaged areas, and eventually bring the animals home.

As of Aug. 18, she said, the larger problem remained: water around parts of her village still had nowhere to go.