Families mourn loss after the fatal storm

Editor's note: The heaviest rainfall in 61 years lashed Beijing on July 21. It triggered flooding, landslides and other damage, causing 77 deaths, of which 38 were found in Fangshan district. There are many grieving families, still in shock.

Jia Xiaohan, 19, a university student from Fangshan district, had finished her first day at a new part-time summer job at 5 pm on July 21 and was on her way home in Xiapozi village with her stepmother and 10-year-old sister in their car when the storm hit Beijing, triggering flash floods.

As the water hit, she and her sister managed to get out of the car and climb up a small tree nearby before the floodwater swept away the car, with her stepmother inside.

But her sister later fell into the floodwater.

Jia called her father and other relatives for help about 7:30 pm, crying: "Dad, please help me."

A friend of her family's arrived at the scene in half an hour and heard her cries for help, but couldn't reach her due to the depth and speed of the floodwater.

A little later, she too was swept away, after the tree fell.

Her stepmother was rescued miles away, hours later, as was her sister, who was found on another tree 3 km away on the morning of July 22.

"She had told me to hold tight," said her sister.

More than 30 people searched for three days, in boats, and searching the river bank inch by inch, day and night.

They found her body on July 24.

Wang Jiansheng, 30, had just driven his friends home, but would never return to his own. He was swept away, just 2 km from his house on July 21, and found dead on his daughter's birthday.

He had called his brother around 10:30 pm asking him and their father to bring another car to pull him out of floodwater, which had swallowed his car, after a river had burst its banks and submerged farmland in Dongnanzhang village, Fangshan district.

But the water had risen too high, and he had to abandon the car.

When they arrived, he was holding onto a tree. He shouted at them not to come close; but after a couple of hours, they got no more answers to their calls.

More than 50 people from his family searched for him around the site.

His brother fractured his index finger in the search.

"He sacrificed himself to support my study. No matter what has happened, I'll find him and take him home," said his brother.

His body was found in a ditch on July 23.

His wife said he had bought the car to take her to hospital when she was pregnant three years before.

"I don't know how to tell our daughter about his death".

Zhang Kaixiang, 63, and Zhang Jingwang, 40, lost their lives when the high winds blew down a wall being built in Tongzhou district on July 21.

The two brothers, from Shandong province, had been working on a construction site in Zaolinzhuang village for six months.

When the wind hit, completely without warning, at 2 pm on Saturday, the brothers stopped work and escaped to a shed nearby.

But the 70-meter-long brick wall was blown down and smashed onto the shed, killing them both.

Zhou Jibin, who worked with them, said no words can express how he feels, adding that they didn't drink or smoke, just worked long hours to provide for their families.

"They always sent most of their salaries home," he said, adding that they liked their jobs because the money they earned in six months was equal to what they could earn in two years at home.

The Beijing News-China Daily