Beijing residents compile flood death toll

BEIJING -- Residents impatient for official updates compiled their own death tolls yesterday for last weekend's massive flooding in Beijing and snapped up survival gear following new forecasts of rain, reflecting deep mistrust of the government's handling of the disaster.

The city government has not issued new death toll figures since Sunday, the day after Beijing's biggest downpour in 61 years overwhelmed drainage systems, swamped downtown underpasses and sent flash floods through the city's outskirts.

Beijing says 37 people were killed, but state media reports Thursday said the toll could be as high as 61 and online rumors put it in the hundreds.

Officials have kept a tight lid on information, mindful that any failure to cope with the flooding could undermine the country's leadership as it undergoes a once-a-decade transition, with Beijing city leaders a part of that reshuffling. The communist government has justified its one-party rule in part by delivering economic growth and maintaining stability in the face of bubbling unrest and periodic mass disasters like Saturday's floods.

In Beijing's worst-affected district, Fangshan, residents were compiling their own death toll online using public and private chat rooms on the popular Baidu website. The toll was not being posted publicly, but some online accounts said the number was more than 300. There was no way to independently confirm the tally.

A woman with the information office of the Fangshan district government said fatality numbers were still being compiled and would be released as soon as the work was done.

"I don't know where those numbers came from," said the woman, who would give only her surname, Xu, when asked to comment on reports of more than 300 dead.

Calls to the information office of the Beijing municipal government rang unanswered.