A China Subway Flood Survivor’s Harrowing Experience: ‘I May Not Be Able to Get Out’

HONG KONG—As floodwaters surged into a stalled subway train beneath the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, Pure Li hurriedly tapped out farewell messages to a close mate on her smartphone. “I may well not be able to get out,” she wrote.

The 26-calendar year-previous engineer was 1 of extra than 500 travellers trapped during the evening hurry hour Tuesday, as torrential rains pummeled the central province of Henan. A dozen individuals would not make it out alive, authorities say, and at the very least two ended up even now lacking as of Saturday early morning.

Determined photos from commuters surrounded by roiling h2o went viral on Chinese social media this 7 days, putting a nerve in a state that has vastly expanded its subway devices, and experienced a series of major underground flooding incidents that have lifted security alarms.

On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Transportation requested subway devices nationwide to re-take a look at and enhance contingency programs for excessive weather conditions. Authorities in Zhengzhou, Henan’s funds city, and Zhengzhou Metro Team, the condition-owned subway enterprise, did not respond to requests for comment.

As rain fell in Zhengzhou on Tuesday, turning roads into swiftly flowing rivers and wreaking hundreds of thousands and thousands of bucks of hurt, in accordance to condition media, h2o began to pool in a train yard, the metro enterprise explained in a assertion. It then broke by way of a wall and flowed into a tunnel.