China floods: The families torn apart by 'huge, furious waves'
Ten-year-old Miao Chunyou screamed for her mum as she disappeared into a brown torrent that had engulfed western Beijing.
The strong currents ripped Miao from her father's grip as floods, triggered by incessant rains, chased the family of three to the roof of a neighbour's house.
Her mother, clinging to a tree branch, watched helplessly. That was the last time she saw Miao. More than 10 days have passed but the couple has heard no news about their daughter.
"It was like a scene from a movie, with huge, furious waves," Miao's mother tells the BBC. She only shared her last name, Chang.
China is no stranger to floods, but July saw a ttrio of typhoons from the Pacific Ocean over three weeks, which exacerbated seasonal monsoon rains. Two of the three made landfall in the country, including super typhoon Doksuri, which churned slowly over large areas of north-west China for several days, inundating Beijing and surrounding provinces such as Hebei. That week, the Chinese capital experienced the most rainfall in 140 years.
Sixty-two people have so far been confirmed dead in the deluge - 33 from Beijing and 29 from neighbouring Hebei province.
Miao was swallowed by water "as high as two adults, one standing on the other", her mother says. "Villagers in their 70s or 80s said they had never seen floods this big in their lives."
She says that it had been raining heavily until July 30, when the downpour eased. The family believed the worst had passed, but stayed home, worried that going outside could expose them to mudslides.
But the following morning "the rain came down heavily", Ms Chang said. As water rapidly filled the house, she and her husband tried to pump it out. But within half hour, flood water and mud smashed through the front wall.
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