Wu Chunlei, 42, whose two-storey house and factory were ruined, said villagers guided rescue groups to flood-stricken rural areas because government workers were not present.
“At the time there was no phone signal and we couldn’t contact any local officials. We could only save ourselves,” Wu said.
Reuters tried to contact the local governments of Zhuozhou and the larger Baoding area, but repeated calls were not answered.
In a statement on Sunday, Zhuozhou’s local government said it had “quickly launched a rescue plan” and that the city’s Communist Party leader was “firmly on the front line of flood fighting and disaster relief”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a written order for “all-out” rescue efforts on Aug 1, and this week dispatched Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing to visit flooded areas in northern China, including Zhuozhou, state media reported. State media has signalled that Xi and other top Communist Party members are on their annual summer retreat.
But in a sign that the authorities were becoming sensitive to criticism by flood victims, several blogposts about the Zhuozhou floods, including first-person accounts, have been censored from the messaging platform WeChat.
Source: CNA
