According to a report by "CCTV News" on June 21, since the flood season began on April 4, the cumulative precipitation in Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province has been 1,221.6 millimeters, which is twice as much as the same period in normal years. Short-term heavy rainfall triggered natural disasters such as landslides, floods, and mudslides, causing serious damage to eight towns including Sishui and Chagan.
According to preliminary statistics, the county's affected population is 55,388, 2,247 houses have collapsed, 3,203 have been seriously damaged, 4,697 roads have collapsed, and 6,759 hectares of crops have been affected... Direct economic losses are expected to be about 5.85 billion yuan. As of 15:00 on June 21, the disaster caused a total of 38 deaths and 2 missing persons.
Tuanxi Village, Chagan Town, Pingyuan County, was one of the hardest-hit areas. At one point, contact was lost for more than 30 hours. On the 22nd, reporters from Jiupai News came to Tuanxi Village, Chagan Town, Pingyuan County, Meizhou City. They found that many houses in the village had collapsed and the streets were full of mud. Emergency repairs of the road leading to Xianxian County, Pingyuan County were completed. Murakami Electric Power and Communications Still undergoing repairs.
The ancestral hall was washed away by floods and the village square was covered with mud. Picture/Jiupai News Dai Mengying
Later, Jiupai News interviewed a 56-year-old local uncle. During this disaster, he saved five neighbors regardless of the risk of his life. "They are like relatives. I can't just watch."
Although one of the rescued people died unfortunately, the other person's son did not blame him, but sincerely thanked him, "He told me that it was me. He risked his life to rescue his parents just because his father was too heavy and had a heart disease. "
Finally, he said, "The most important thing is that people are alive, only those who have money are rich, so when there was a flood, I put my mobile phone on it. The window sill was submerged by the rising water, and the furniture, electrical appliances and other things in my home were washed away. I didn't care, and I never thought about saving the property. Even if I knew the result, I would still do it if I had another chance. Save, because people are not things and cannot be measured by money.”
[1] Rising water
In the eyes of local villagers, the flood was very violent and sudden.
Xie Yingjun (pseudonym), a villager in Tuanxi Village, told Jiupai News reporters that he had not seen such a huge flood since 1990. It is reported that many places in Meizhou, Guangdong suffered from rare heavy rains and floods, causing landslides and house collapses.
Xie An, 56 years old, told Jiupai News that at about 4 pm on June 16, he saw in the yard in front of his home that the outside was covered by dim floods. The farmland in front of the yard and the low buildings in the lower areas were no longer visible. trace.
Not long after, the water rose to the second floor of a short self-built bungalow next door. The two people in the house took out a ladder from the house, set it up in the courtyard of the adjacent house, and ran out.
The power was out at that time. Xie An expected that the water might continue to rise. While it was still dark and the water level was not too high, he hurried to higher ground to fill his stomach and survive the dark night.
As soon as he and his son arrived at Murakami, they heard someone shouting, "There are people trapped on the roof below, please help." So Xie An and his son ran back in a hurry, found a few nearby wooden boards and bamboo rafts, and simply put them together to make a "bamboo raft", which was convenient for paddling in the water and rescuing people.
The water level rose very quickly, and by then it had reached the roof of the small bungalow. The water was turbulent and fast, washing messy debris everywhere and causing great obstacles to Xie An.
"The assembled 'bamboo raft' was too big and was blocked by submerged buildings and objects. It was very difficult to row, so we had to climb up to the platform on the roof, take it apart piece by piece, and throw it into the obstacles. On the other side, turn it over and put it back together again," he said.
Xie An and his son first rescued a family of three who climbed onto the glazed tile roof. The old lady was disabled and could not straighten her arms or exert strength, so he grabbed the wall with one hand and pulled her up with the other hand. She was brought to the "bamboo raft" and then went to rescue her husband and asked her daughter to hug the railing on the side to avoid being washed away by the flood.
Xie An’s family (red arrow) and Xie Dongqiang’s family (blue arrow).Picture/Jiupai News Dai Mengying
After finally rescuing their family of three, Xie An heard his neighbor shout again, "There are two people trapped inside there!" It was a taller commercial building next to them, and they were trapped. The two are an old couple, and the husband Xie Dongqiang is 79 years old this year.
The windows of commercial buildings are blocked by stainless steel guardrails. The floodwater happened to cover the lower half of the second-floor window. Since he didn’t know which room the old couple were in, Xie An first rowed a “bamboo raft” close to the window and used wood floating in the water to cover the stainless steel He smashed the window open and climbed in on his hands and knees. At this time, the water level had reached his thighs.
He noticed that his mother-in-law was trapped between the second and third floors and could not get out. There was a high platform about 1.5 meters in the building that was blocked by a protective door, so he went to unbolt the door to make her mother-in-law safer. Take shelter on a high platform.
The water rose too fast. In just two minutes, it rose from the lower half of the window to the top. He was trapped in the house, submerged under the water, and he was the only one around, so he had to swim out from the window.
【2】Xie An, who had "escaped" after rescuing people
, then found his neighbor Xie Dongqiang at the window on the right, and wanted to take him from the house to the "bamboo raft". Due to the emergency, he accidentally fell in in water. Xie An immediately followed him into the water, put his hands through his armpits from behind, and lifted him up.
"When rescuing someone, you must hug him from the back. If you hug him from the front, he will treat you as a 'life-saving straw' and use all his strength to hold you tightly, making it impossible for you to break away or paddle; You also need to be careful to hold his belly, not your arms or armpits, otherwise once he struggles or you lose your strength, he will easily slip down, causing water to enter his mouth and nose, or even sink to the bottom of the water. He is water-based. When he was young, he saved people who accidentally fell into the river. He is very experienced in this area. He repeatedly emphasized to Jiupai News.
However, the "bamboo raft" was washed away by the water at this time, and it was flooded in all directions. The tiled wall could not support it. The helpless Xie An had to take him to swim to the air conditioner on the other side.
Xie An rescued the victims at the scene. Picture/Jiupai News Tao Zitong
"I passed my hands through his waist and grabbed the stainless steel guardrail of the air conditioner's outdoor unit. I bent my knees against his hips, letting him sit and lean on me, and just persisted like this. Nearly 2 hours," he said.
In the meantime, Xie Dongqiang's wife found sheets from the house and tied his arms to the stainless steel guardrail with the sheets to reduce Xie An's burden. Someone upstairs also found a TV cable and asked Xie An's son to help, trying to tie Xie Dongqiang and lift him out of the water.
So Xie An’s son put up a wooden board between the platform on the roof of a nearby building and the outdoor air conditioner of the commercial building, walked over, and helped his father, but the TV cable could not be lifted at all. He had no choice but to tie up the two of them first, to at least ensure their safety to a certain extent.
Xie An said that he was exhausted at the time and could not find the energy to communicate with Xie Dongqiang. However, he was also worried that he was not breathing, so he hit his head. Hearing his gasping for breath, he felt relieved and knew that he was not breathing. It's okay.
“My son was worried that I wouldn’t be able to support myself for long, so he found a ‘bamboo raft’ from the side and helped me put him on it. I used TV cables to drag the ‘bamboo raft’ to the windowsill and fix it, and I finally You can let him go," he said.
Xie An then swam to the rooftop platform of the adjacent building to rest. By then, it was nearly 3 a.m., and the water began to recede slowly. Since he was not sure whether the water would continue to rise, he did not leave. Instead, he observed the water level on the platform, while talking to Xie Dongqiang's wife on the high platform inside the building to comfort her.
"I said don't be afraid. The bamboo rafts are placed on the windowsill. If the water continues to rise, my bamboo rafts will also rise. You can climb out of the window sill and get on the bamboo rafts. I will go over to rescue you. If the water recedes, , and you can walk out of the building safely," he said.
In this way, Xie An spent a thrilling night on the rooftop platform, and he did not leave until dawn.
[3] Victims
After the flood finally receded, the path between the buildings was exposed. It was covered with deep silt and crookedly piled with many debris washed out of the buildings and broken wood and stones from the mountain.
At this time, Xie An and his son were exhausted and almost collapsed. "I didn't get up until 3 pm the next day. After waking up at night, I ate a few pieces of bread." In the evening, Xie An returned to Wuping County, found his daughter and brother in the county, and reported that they were safe. Since Murakami was short of supplies, he also bought plastic buckets and took 1,000 kilograms of water back to the village. Later, they also discovered that there were many wounds left on the body when rescuing people. "A whole piece of skin was cut off the back of my son's foot by glass."
His wife saw that he didn't come home all night and didn't even eat, so she called his name all the way. "Later I came back, and my wife had tears in her eyes." He said that his wife knew that he was going to save people. Afterwards, he choked and complained that there were seniors and young children at home, but he was so disregarding his own safety. "I really didn't think about it." When
asked if he had ever thought that he might be swept away by the flood, Xie An responded that he had never thought about this problem. The situation was urgent and he was a neighbor. It was impossible to watch them being swept away. If there is a flood, we must save it. I didn't feel tired at all. I just wanted to hold on to the person and save him without letting him fall into the water.
"Life is the most important thing. Only those who have money can make money. Therefore, when there was a flood, my mobile phone was placed on the windowsill and was submerged by the rising flood. Furniture, electrical appliances and other things in my home were washed away. I didn't care. "I never thought about saving property. But people are not things and cannot be measured by money. Even if I know the outcome, I will still save it," he said.
A landslide knocked down the wall of Xie An's home. Picture/Jiupai News Tao Zitong
Xie An said that Xie Dongqiang’s family told him that he was not breathing long after he rescued him. They determined that it might be due to his old age, soaking in water for too long, and hypothermia, but it could also be due to heart disease.
After the incident, Xie An was worried that Xie Dongqiang’s son would think that he failed to save his father. “In that case, I would feel guilty. I told him that you must understand me, and I also tried my best to save your father. I didn’t mean it, I just wanted to save him.”
But the other party didn’t blame Xie An. "He told me that he would not blame me no matter what, because I risked my life to rescue his parents. It's just because his father is too heavy and has heart disease, so we usually don't dare to vent his anger or quarrel with him. "Afterwards, Xie Dongqiang's son expressed his gratitude and admired Xie An for holding his father for so long without letting him drink water.
Later, Jiupai News learned from villager Xie Yingjun that the victim, Xie Dongqiang, once served as a Chinese teacher in a private primary school in the village and was taught by the other party for several years. "I remember that his handwriting on the blackboard was very beautiful and his teaching was very high-level." Xie Yingjun said that sometimes when he met someone in the village, he would say "Hello, teacher".
But Xie Dongqiang’s educational career did not last long. After four or five years, he stopped teaching and instead joined the village’s production team. After the government implemented the distribution of production to each household, he grew crops in the fields. Xie Yingjun said that Xie Dongqiang's previous home was in another place, but because the house was dilapidated, he bought a commercial house in the village to live in, and he has lived there until now.
But no one expected that an accident would happen. Although neighbors rescued him, Xie Dongqiang still died. "The next afternoon, I went downstairs to move things, and I saw his wife by the well in the village." Xie Yingjun recalled that Xie Dongqiang's wife was in poor condition and was very sad. There were also relatives who were traveling with Xie Dongqiang. How to dispose of the remains.
"At that time, there were no roads in the village, there was no Internet, and it lost contact with the outside world." On June 20, the road from the village to Wuping County, Longyan, Fujian Province was dug, and Xie Dongqiang's family transported his body back from Wuping County. Pingyuan County, Meizhou, Guangdong. He said that Xie Dongqiang and his wife had two sons and one daughter, and his body is currently placed in the county seat.
(Characters appearing in the article are all pseudonyms)
Jiupai News Reporter Dai Mengying Tao Zitong Reporting from Meizhou, Guangdong
[Source: Jiupai News]
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