For days, the rain came down in sheets, pounding Beijing and areas around it in what the government said was the heaviest deluge China’s capital had seen since record keeping began 140 years ago.

北京及其周邊地區連日遭遇特大暴雨。中國政府稱，此次強降雨是首都北京自有儀器測量記錄140年來的最大降雨量。

When the extreme downpour finally stopped on Tuesday, most of Beijing had been spared the worst — but partly because officials made sure the floodwaters went elsewhere.

強降雨在上週二終於停止後，人們發現，北京的大部分地區都並非受影響最嚴重的地區，不過，出現這個結果的部分原因是，官員們為保北京將洪水泄到了其他地方。

Officials in Hebei Province, which borders Beijing, had opened flood gates and spillways in seven low-lying flood control zones to prevent rivers and reservoirs from overflowing in Beijing and the region’s other metropolis, Tianjin, state media said. The Communist Party leader of Hebei, Ni Yuefeng, said he ordered the “activation of flood storage and diversion areas in an orderly manner, so as to reduce the pressure on Beijing’s flood control and resolutely build a ‘moat’ for the capital.”

據中國官媒報導，在緊鄰北京的河北省，官員為防止北京和天津的河流和水庫泛濫，打開了讓洪水流入該省七個低洼蓄洪區的防洪閘和溢洪道。河北省委書記倪岳峰表示，他下令「有序啟用蓄滯洪區，減輕北京防洪壓力，堅決當好首都『護城河』」。

That move further inundated the adjacent city of Zhuozhou in Hebei, which had already been struggling to contain its own floods after a levee broke and a local river overflowed. Its streets and neighborhoods turned into a brown, muddy lake, with water up to 23 feet deep destroying homes and businesses.

這種做法導致河北涿州的洪水泛濫進一步嚴重，該市已在艱難地應對附近河流決堤造成的河水漫出問題。涿州的街道和居民區變成了被棕色泥水淹沒的湖泊，水深達七米，毀壞了房屋和企業。

Nearly a million people have been forced to evacuate in the province and in adjacent villages on the fringes of Beijing. In some areas, the flooding has disrupted power supplies as well as internet and mobile connections. Residents have posted online pleas for help finding hundreds of missing people.

河北省和比鄰的幾個北京遠郊區村子有近百萬人被迫撤離。洪水導致一些地方的電力供應中斷，切斷了互聯網和移動網路連接。有居民在網上發帖請求幫助尋找數百名失蹤人員。

China is not the only country that sometimes opens spillways to divert floodwaters from big cities to areas with fewer residents — an emergency, last-resort measure aimed at reducing destruction and loss of life. The Morganza Floodway in central Louisiana, last opened in 2011, has 125 huge gates that can open to drain floodwaters coming down the Mississippi River away from New Orleans and into the sparsely populated, swampy Atchafalaya Basin.

打開溢洪道，將洪水從大城市引到人口更少的地方是為減少破壞和人員傷亡而採取的最後緊急手段，中國並非偶爾採取這種做法的唯一國家。美國最近一次啟用路易斯安那州中部的莫甘扎泄洪道是2011年，該泄洪道有125個巨大閘門，可將從密西西比河上游下來的洪水排入人煙稀少的阿查法拉亞盆地沼澤，讓紐奧良市免遭洪災。

But in China, the crisis in Zhuozhou has set off widespread anger, in part because help was initially slow to arrive in some areas, leaving many stranded. Survivors have also complained that they were not given ample warning about the discharge of floodwaters, and questioned if they would be compensated for their losses.

但中國涿州的洪水泛濫引發了廣泛憤怒，部分原因是救援行動最初來得很慢，導致許多居民被洪水圍困。倖存者還抱怨稱，他們沒有得到有關泄洪的充分警告，並對他們的損失是否會得到補償表示懷疑。

In particular, people have denounced what they perceive as a Hebei leadership that has been more interested in appeasing national leaders in Beijing than in safeguarding millions of Chinese citizens. Mr. Ni’s “moat” comment, seemingly insensitive to the losses endured by his residents, became a hashtag that quickly amassed more than 60 million views before censors began suppressing the online discussion.

憤怒情緒尤其集中在河北省領導人身上，人們認為他們更關心的是討好北京的國家領導人，而不是保護本省的數百萬居民。在審查機構開始壓制網上的相關討論之前，倪岳峰的「護城河」說法很快成了一個瀏覽量迅速超過6000萬次的話題標籤，該說法似乎反映了他對河北省居民遭受的損失漠不關心的態度。

“To protect Beijing, no one cares if we in Hebei are being flooded,” a resident of a village on Zhuozhou’s outskirts complained on Friday morning, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal for criticizing the government.

「保北京，淹了我們河北不管，」涿州郊區一個村子的一名居民上週五上午抱怨道，由於擔心批評政府會受到報復，該居民要求不具名。

Another Zhuozhou resident stood at the edge of a field next to his partly submerged village on the city’s outskirts on Friday, waiting for lingering, thigh-deep water to subside. He said that he had put his belongings on chairs and put the chairs up on beds before fleeing his house as the waters rose. But water flowed at least six feet deep through his home, ruining his possessions and destroying his nearby pile of construction materials.

上週五，在涿州市郊區被部分淹沒的另一個村子裡，一名居民站在田邊，等待著大腿深的積水消退。他說他將自己的物品放在椅子上，再把椅子放在床上，後來水位繼續上漲，他被迫棄家逃離。但從他家流過的洪水至少高達一米八，導致他的財產受損，還毀壞了他存放在附近的一堆建築材料。

“No one ever informed us of the flood discharge or told us to prepare to evacuate — if we had known this information, we would not have left so many things behind,” said the villager, who gave his family name, Yu. “Everything is soaked in water. I can barely calculate my loss.”

「沒有人通知我們泄洪，準備撤離，我們如果知道這個信息，東西就不會落下那麼多，」這名自稱姓余的村民說。「全都泡在裡面了，損失沒法統計了。」

Crumpled chunks of steel siding, a white dressing table and a steeply leaning wood shed were strewn across the field near Mr. Yu, showing the force with which floodwaters had surged through the area.

余先生附近的田野上可看到被壓皺的大塊鋼製壁板、一個白色梳妝台，以及一個嚴重傾斜的木棚，顯示了洪水衝過該地區時的力量。

The driver of a large yellow front loader used its bucket to carry a gray-haired woman in a wheelchair out of a deeply flooded street, then carried cases of drinking water in to residents still there. A gray minivan towing two red inflatable motorboats waited nearby to enter the neighborhood.

一輛大型黃色前置裝載機的司機用車斗將一名坐在輪椅裡的白髮婦女從被洪水淹沒的街道上轉運出來，然後將一箱箱飲用水運給仍被洪水圍困的居民們。一輛拖著兩艘紅色充氣摩托艇的灰色小型貨車在附近等待進入該居民區。

The government and party have set aside at least $20 million for flood prevention, relief and reconstruction efforts in Beijing and Hebei; another $63 million was allocated on Friday to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei for the restoration of dams, reservoirs and other water facilities. Zhuozhou’s government issued a national appeal on Thursday for donations of money and relief supplies.

河北省委和省政府已撥放1.88億元緊急防汛資金。中央政府上週五又下達了水利救災資金4.5億元，用於北京、天津、河北受損堤壩、水庫和其他水利設施的修復工作。涿州市政府上週四向全國發出為當地捐款捐物的呼籲。

The official China Daily newspaper published a commentary that called for residents who suffered losses because of the flood diversion to be compensated, as required by Chinese law at least for those living in designated flood diversion areas. It said the authorities should be better prepared for future disasters, describing the recent deluge as a “wakeup call.”

官方報紙《中國日報》發表英文評論文章，呼籲對因泄洪遭受損失的居民進行賠償，中國法律至少要求補償生活在指定分洪區的居民。該文將最近這場洪水描述為「警鐘」，稱當局應當為未來的災害做更好的準備。

“Ensuring the safety of people in flood diversion areas, ensuring adequate compensation, and assisting in the swift reconstruction of their homes and livelihoods are essential aspects of disaster management,” the newspaper said.

「確保分洪區人民的安全，確保充分的補償，並協助他們迅速重建家園和生計，是災害管理的重要方面，」該文寫道。

But the flooding extended beyond designated diversion areas, which could complicate compensation. And many living in Zhuozhou are migrants from other provinces who lack legal residency in Hebei.

但這次洪水的範圍超出了指定蓄洪區，這可能會使補償變得複雜。居住在涿州的許多人是來自其他省份的農民工，他們沒有河北戶口。

“Do you think we migrants are eligible to receive compensation?” said another resident, who makes a living by gathering discarded trash in Beijing and selling it to recyclers in Hebei. “It’s impossible.”

「你覺得我們外地人有補償嗎？」另一名居民問道，他靠在北京收破爛、將其賣給河北的回收商謀生。「不可能的。」

The flooding wreaked havoc elsewhere in Zhuozhou: a book publisher lost more than $3.5 million worth of books in a single hour; some animal shelters were inundated.

洪水還給涿州造成了其他嚴重損失：一家圖書出版商在一小時內損失了2000萬元碼洋的圖書；幾家動物收容所被淹沒。

Two Chinese partner groups of Humane Society International, the Capital Animal Welfare Association in Beijing and Dalian Vshine, estimated that floodwaters carried away 400 dogs and 300 cats from shelters, although some were later found clinging to rooftops and treetops downstream.

據國際人道協會在中國的兩家合作組織——首都愛護動物協會和大連市微善愛護動物協會估計，洪水將動物收容所裡的400隻狗和300隻貓沖走，人們後來在下游找到了一些緊緊抓住屋頂或樹稍的貓和狗。

Much of the water flowing through Zhuozhou did not come from Beijing. State media said that downpours in the mountains of Hebei had caused Hebei’s Juma River to flood in Zhuozhou. A levee on the nearby Baigou River, into which the Juma River flows, gave way near Zhuozhou, forcing the evacuation of four villages.

涿州洪水的大部分並非來自北京。官媒表示，河北山區的強降雨導致該省境內的拒馬河泛濫。拒馬河流入白溝河，白溝河上的一座堤壩在涿州附近潰堤，迫使四個村莊的居民撤離。

But state media also reported that during a severe flood in Beijing and Hebei in 2012, which killed 145 people and left 26 people missing, the water barely reached the doorsteps of Zhuozhou residents.

但官媒還報導稱，2012年，北京和河北發生導致145人死亡、26人失蹤的特大洪澇災害時，涿州的水幾乎沒有漫過居民的家門口。

During previous inundations of southwestern Beijing, the water had somewhere else to go: a vast expanse of fairly low-lying land in the Xiong’an area of Hebei along the Beijing border. But in the past decade, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has ordered extensive construction in Xiong’an, to develop the area into an alternate capital.

北京西南部遭受那場洪水時，水有其他的地方可以去：河北雄安，那是位於河北與北京接壤地區的一大片地勢相當低洼的地帶。但中國最高領導人習近平在過去十年中下令在雄安進行大規模建設，將該地區發展為取代部分首都職能的城市。

Many municipal government agencies and state-owned enterprises have been required to move to the “Xiong’an New Area,” to relieve crowding in downtown Beijing.

北京市的許多政府機構和國有企業已被要求遷到「雄安新區」，以緩解北京市中心的擁擠狀況。

China has also built one of the world’s largest international airports in southernmost Beijing next to the Hebei border, with five runways instead of the usual two or three. After commercial jetliners ended up sitting wheels-deep in water there on Monday, closing the airport, top officials ordered action.

中國還在北京靠近河北邊境的最南端建造了世界上最大的國際機場之一，該機場有五條跑道，而不是通常的兩到三條。上週一，機場上的水漲到了最終將民航噴氣式客機的輪子淹沒、導致機場關閉後，高級官員下令採取行動。

“Ensure the absolute safety of key defense targets such as Xiong’an New Area and Beijing Daxing Airport,” Li Guoying, China’s minister of water resources, ordered on Tuesday.

中國水利部部長李國英上週二要求「確保雄安新區、北京大興機場等重點防禦對象絕對安全」。

China has for several years been dealing with extreme weather emergencies across the country. The world’s heaviest single hour of rain ever recorded in a major city occurred two years ago in the central city of Zhengzhou, flooding a subway train and road underpasses. This week’s downpour along the Beijing-Hebei provincial border, with almost 30 inches of rain falling in northwestern Beijing, came soon after the most severe heat wave in Beijing since modern temperature readings began in 1961.

中國近年來一直在全國範圍應對極端天氣緊急情況。鄭州市中心兩年前下了一場大暴雨，創下了世界上主要城市有記錄以來的一小時降雨量記錄，大暴雨導致一條地鐵線和立交橋下的道路被淹。上週，北京與河北省交界處的強降雨導致北京西南部的累積最大降雨量接近750毫米。此前不久，北京還遭受了自1961年有完整氣象觀測記錄以來最嚴重的熱浪。