By Steven Jiang, CNN
updated 11:36 PM EDT, Wed July 25, 2012
hit the Chinese capital, Zhang Huishen remains furious over what she
perceives as government indifference to her family's plight.
"Our family of five lives off one income," said the 46-year-old farmer
Wednesday. "Nobody cares about us because there's no official in
this household."
Zhang lives along what once was a paved road in the small village of
Louzishui in Beijing's southwestern Fangshan district, the area hit
hardest by the storm last weekend.
A flashflood has reduced the road to a muddy path littered with furniture,
clothes and even a tin shed -- all objects washed away by powerful waters.
More rain forecast as Beijing mops up flood and comments
Water marks some two meters high stay visible on the exterior walls of a
dozen houses by the road, while mud piles stand outside doorways with
flies circling around garbage nearby.
Zhang says she largely relies on her husband's monthly wage of $300 to
take care of her family that includes the couple, their two children and
her sick father-in-law.
"Everything was floating in water -- refrigerator, television, everything,"
she said while showing a CNN crew her just-dried kitchen and living room.
"I borrowed money to renovate the house and lost more than
100,000 yuan ($15,000)."
Zhang and her neighbors alike remember a fearful night spent in dark
attics or higher ground after carrying the elderly and children out of
fast-rising water -- all the while unable to reach anyone at the city's
flood control hotline.
One neighbor, Gao Liying, added that she feels even more shaken by
the village officials' response when she told them the flood has ruined
almost all her worldly possessions.
"They actually said: 'If your house didn't collapse and nobody died,
then you're not a victim,'" she said, raising her voice. "I asked: are you still human?"
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