Beijing flood deaths rise as officials say 31 older people died in a flooded care center

Beijing officials said 31 older people trapped in a flooded nursing home died as powerful storms swept the Chinese capital and neighboring provinces, pushing the regional death toll above 70. The disclosure added a grim human face to an already severe flood emergency and prompted a rare public apology from local officials.

The deaths occurred at the Taishitun Town Elderly Care Center in Miyun district, one of the hardest-hit parts of Beijing. Officials said the area received nearly a year's worth of rain in just a few days, and floodwaters surged on Monday before many people could escape. The care center housed 69 residents, including 55 people with disabilities, and 77 people were in the building including staff when the flooding hit.

Beijing officials said the centre had long been considered safe and had not been included in emergency preparedness plans. That gap became central to the apology from Miyun Party secretary Yu Weiguo, who called it a bitter lesson and said the prepared plans had holes. The admission is notable because official apologies of that kind are uncommon in a system that usually limits public discussion of failures.

The broader flood death toll extended well beyond Beijing. Authorities in Hebei province announced eight more deaths, while officials in northern Shanxi said a minibus carrying farm workers had been swept away, killing 10 people and leaving four missing. Those numbers show that the storm system affected multiple jurisdictions and was not just a local Beijing disaster.

The AP report also noted the effect of information control in China, where officials often restrict or delay details about disasters and casualties. That matters because the public only learned about the nursing-home deaths after the district had already announced a broader death toll in the area. In other words, the final accounting came in stages, not all at once.

The scale of the flooding itself was severe. Water reportedly rose to 2 meters in the deepest places, leaving many people unable to get out in time. Rescue efforts involved boats, evacuations and a large emergency response, but not everyone inside the care center could be saved.

This event stands out for two reasons. First, the disaster was deadly on a wide regional scale. Second, it exposed a preparedness failure in a place that had been assumed to be safe. That combination turned a flood story into an institutional accountability story as well.