A pastor said that local Christians suffered no property loss in a historical flood in China's northern Shaanxi.
From August 21 to 22, most areas of Mian County in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, were battered by extreme rainstorms with a maximum precipitation level of 237.7 mm and maximum hourly rainfall of 72.5 mm, its most extreme value since the onset of meteorological records, according to the provincial weather bureau.
Based on preliminary statistics, the record-breaking storms affected 11,639 people and 1,146 hectares of farmland, causing a total direct economic loss of about 450 million yuan as of 4 pm on Aug 22. During the flood, 1,393 households with 4,070 people were relocated from rural areas to a safer place and 415 rooms were damaged, of which 3 were wrecked. Some roads were interrupted, and traffic was blocked in many places. At 10 pm last Saturday, the county flood control headquarters initiated the level-II flood prevention emergency response, while the whole county entered a state of emergency disaster prevention.
On the afternoon of August 23, Pastor Zhu Lin from Mian County Church received a phone interview with Gospel Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper, sharing the situation of flood-fighting and disaster relief conducted by local churches.
When the rainstorm came, the pastoral staff of the church immediately discussed countermeasures by phone, as in-person services were suspended due to COVID-19.
In addition to launching prayer for the disaster on August 21, the staff urged church members to protect themselves and to contact the church if their houses were flooded. Church watchmen were told to be on alert and keep an eye on the calamity.
Pastor Zhu said that the whole church and believers passed through the torrential rainstorms safely without any property loss. Next, they would actively participate in post-disaster reconstruction and restoration of normal life.
(The article is originally published by the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
