Jingxing's Shuangting brothers opened the door to life for their fellow villagers

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????■Wang Shuangting (right) and Wang Shengting (left), the two brothers, were awarded the title of "Yanzhao Model."

????■Armed police officers and soldiers help villagers clear away the silt.

????■Staff from units including the Jingxing County Center for Disease Control and Xiaozuo Township Health Center carry out epidemic prevention and disinfection in the village.

When the raging floodwaters came, Wang Shuangting, Party branch secretary of Nanshimen Village in Xiaozuo Township, Jingxing, and his younger brother Wang Shengting, also a Party member, went door to door shouting for everyone to evacuate, saving half the village's residents, while Wang Shengting lost his wife forever. After the flood disaster, the two brothers endured their grief and gathered their strength to lead the people in rebuilding their homes. Yesterday, Wang Shuangting and Wang Shengting were awarded the honorary title of "Yanzhao Model" by the Publicity Department of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee.

????The two brothers went door to door shouting, telling everyone to evacuate

Yesterday in Nanshimen Village, Jingxing County, the floodwaters had long since receded, and villagers and armed police officers and soldiers were clearing silt together with shovels, wheelbarrows and loaders. Talking about the flood on July 19, every villager still felt lingering fear. "In just about 10 minutes, the flood submerged the whole village! I'm 62 years old, and this is the first time I've seen water this big." Wang Zhongzhong, a 62-year-old villager, still felt frightened when recalling the scene. "If the Shuangting and Shengting brothers hadn't gone door to door shouting, many of our villagers would certainly have lost their lives!"

On the afternoon of July 19, the rain kept falling. Wang Shuangting, as Party branch secretary of Shimen Village, had been busy the whole time. First he called the owners of the 7 livestock farms closest to the Xiaozuo River, telling them they absolutely had to return to the village. After notifying them, he then thought of 3 households whose houses had earthen slopes behind them, which could easily cause danger. By then the phone calls could no longer get through, so he rushed to their homes and found that water had indeed entered, so he helped drain it out. By the time he finished bustling about, it was already 21:00. As he walked along the road in the south of the village, he heard the Xiaozuo River beside him rushing with a loud roar, a sound of water he had never heard before. And by then the water on the street was getting deeper and deeper, almost up to his knees, so he had to notify everyone quickly. "The flood is rising! Run, quick!" At that time there was no electricity, so loudspeakers could not be used to notify people. In the torrential rain, Wang Shuangting hurriedly ran into the village and began knocking on doors and shouting from house to house.

At the same time, Wang Shengting, an electrician, discovered that the village had lost power, so he ran out in the rain to see what exactly was going on, and by then the water was already up to his knees. "Danger, many people must already be asleep! We have to notify everyone quickly to evacuate!" Wang Shengting also began running along another street, banging on each household's door: "The flood is here! Run to higher ground, quick!" The rain that night was very loud, and only the two men's shouts and the sounds of banging on the gates could be heard.

"I just heard the sound of banging on the door and shouting, and I didn't know what was being shouted, so I came out with a flashlight and saw Shengting knocking on other people's doors and shouting, 'The flood is here, run quick.'" Wang Zhongzhong hurried back inside, called his pregnant daughter and 6-year-old granddaughter, and pulled and dragged them up onto the roof to run. His little granddaughter did not even have time to put on clothes. When they got onto the roof, they heard a loud clang, and the gate was forced open by the flood, and the water came into the courtyard. "In just about ten minutes, the water was almost up to the roof!" Wang Zhongzhong kept saying, "I never expected it, never expected there would be such big water!"

On the night of the 19th, in the torrential rain, the shouts and door-knocking of the brothers Wang Shuangting and Wang Shengting mixed with the sound of the rain and echoed over Nanshimen Village. They were racing against time; every second they fought for could save one more life. It was precisely because of the shouts of the brothers Wang Shuangting and Wang Shengting that all 198 people in the village escaped death from the flood. Everyone said that if the brothers Wang Shuangting and Wang Shengting had not risked their lives to notify everyone, probably half the village would not have escaped this merciless flood.

?He failed to save his wife, but he did save a teenage boy

The flood that occurred on the night of the 19th caused 8 deaths in their village, among them Wang Shengting's wife.

Wang Shengting recalled that when he was shouting along the street to notify villagers, his wife Gao Jianlin was still in their own shop. When he passed the shop, he told his wife to hurry back to their old home on higher ground, and then went on to notify other villagers.

But just a little more than ten minutes later, the flood had already surged over the riverbank, with the water more than 3 m deep. The houses in Nanshimen Village were all connected together, and through the rooftops the villagers moved to the village's highest point. After shouting through all the village streets, the brothers Wang Shuangting and Wang Shengting returned to their own homes to check on their families. Wang Shengting found that his elderly mother and both children had gotten onto the roof, but he did not see the children's mother...

At that moment Wang Shengting's heart skipped a beat. He felt an inexplicable fear, but still held on to a sliver of hope. He quickly found a thick rope and ran along the village rooftops toward the roof of his own shop. The rain was heavy, but he ran very fast, filled with hope... But when he arrived, he found that the water had already reached the roof of his shop, and he could not see any sign of his wife at all. In the torrential rain he was filled with despair and guilt. Standing there, he did not know what to do. "Jianlin followed me and never enjoyed a single day of comfort..." Facing the reporter, this 47-year-old man shed hot tears.

"Help! Help!" At that moment, cries for help came again and again to his ears. Following the sound, he saw a boy of fifteen or sixteen straddling the top of a window, with one leg hanging outside the window and one leg inside, and outside the floodwater had already reached his calves. Without caring about anything else, Wang Shengting threw the rope to the boy and told him to tie it around his waist, then used all his strength to pull him up, and the boy was saved!