Heaviest rainfall in Beijing, 37 people died.

Original from BBC news - CHINA: 

At least 77 people were killed by heavy rain in Beijing at the weekend, Xinhua news agency says. Authorities in the Chinese capital said 66 of the 77 bodies found so far had been identified. Most had drowned. The official death toll had stood at 37 since Sunday but many angry Beijing residents said it was underestimated.

The rainfall was the heaviest in Beijing in 60 years, bringing chaos to transport systems and power supplies. Major roads were flooded and more than 500 flights cancelled, with thousands of people stranded at the city's main airport. More than 65,000 people had to be evacuated.

The authorities have been criticised for being slow to acknowledge the human cost of the floods.

As I recall, this could be the 3rd year of continuous summer floods in China. Large areas are effected, greater damages are caused especially in urban areas. This could be a major disaster for urban residents, the high density areas are not properly designed with stormwater management devices, I have never seen engineering structured facilities used for stormwater attenuation or treatment in high density areas. 

As I am doing my master's thesis on stormwater management, this kind of extreme rainfall events are not only causing the flooding situations, but also create a major source of diffuse pollution for the city. Natural watercourse, groundwater will all be effected. Especially in such crowded and heavy loaded streets, all the oil and carbohydrate pollutants from vehicles or on the high way, will be transported quickly by piped drainage systems. As the system loads exceeds the design capacity, all the diffuse pollution will be transferred again back to the surface, or end up in the groundwater and natural watersheds nearby. 

You know what, this is not a problem of climate change, this is not a problem of intense rainfall events. It is a consequence that would come sooner or later in the progress of urbanization. Without the natural pattern of the flow, this kind of situation will continue. As to my concern, Chinese government should put more attention to it long time ago.  

Here's a list of victims

 Among all the 61 victims, 50 people are drowned, trapped in the car, or by flooding. 5 people are killed by electric shock, 1 person is died of lightning stroke. 3 people are killed by the collapsing building,  2 people are killed by falling objects, and another 2 died of severe traumatic shock. The last one was killed by mud-rock flow.

Other parts of China, people are all suffering from this summer rainpour.

People on the streets are catching fish in the flooding water. Someone in Tianjing, use the swan boat which originally served as an amusement device in the park, as a transportation tool. Also, there's a guy even drives his own jet ski in the streets. This must be cool, I bet. In the residential area, someone need to use a swim ring for grocery. Donut on the water!

 

Piranha 3DD - Reality Show Live in China!

Originally from Dailymail Online:

Have you ever seen the movie Piranha 3DD, recently Mr. Kaibo got biten by three piranhas while he was washing his dog in a local river in the south-west Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region of China.
The wound seems serious, it's hard to believe that such a small fish in size can truly cause such a large wound. Mr. Kaibo managed to grab one of the three piranhas that attacked him, but it died shortly after.

Now, Mr. Kaibo tries to bite back, offering a 100 pounds bounty to anyone who catches a piranha. Authorities have trawled the river with meat-baited net, but despite hauling 10kgs of fish they have yet to catch the piranhas.

The piranhas are normally found in South America, those appears in China are thought to have been dumped in the river by a tropical fish keeper.

Piranhas are normally about 14 to 26cm long, have a single row of sharp teeth in both jaws, the teeth are tightly packed and interlocking and are used for rapid puncture and shearing. Their teeth are often used to make tools and weapons by the indigenous population. Also piranhas are also popular as food. Another interesting fact is that if an individual piranha is caught on a hook or line, it may be attacked by other free piranhas.

Those red-eyed creatures seems really scary with those teeth and appetite for meat. But those myths about piranhas such as how they can dilacerate a human body or cattle in seconds refer specifically to one type - the red-bellied piranha (image below).  To me, they just have the more lovely looking!!

 But now many research studies have already dismissed these myths, researchers found that piranhas may occasionally attack humans, particularly when water levels are low.