It had been a sleepless night for residents and authorities of Caidian district in Wuhan. 19,000 residents from two villages in the district were evacuated as water levels at nearby dams passed the warning level.
In the Caidian district of Wuhan, with water levels at nearby dams approaching historic highs and some 19,000 residents to be evacuated, there is no room for error. And no-one was to be left behind.
"We began persuading residents to evacuate in the morning. We told them when and where to gather. And we arranged buses to transport them. For the weak and the elderly, we have to arrange special pick-ups too," said Li Yanfang from Caidian Road Management Bureau.
But what has been harder than the logistics is the convincing residents to evacuate.
"It's difficult, many aren't willing to leave. They think the situation isn't that bad and they're worried about their properties," said Hu Hanjiao from Caidian Road Management Bureau.
The emergency evacuation team is here to assist even if that means helping with the transportation of pigs, more than a hundred of them. The team says relocating them is necessary for preventing an epidemic outbreak.
"We first got our elderly parents out of here. And now we're here to tend to the pigs. My parents put a lot of effort into raising them," said local villager Huang Pingli.
A full evening and some 300 bus rides later, residents of the local villages were finally able to put their feet up. A school auditorium in a nearby town is now their temporary home. Few had time to take with them anything beyond the basic necessities. But most understood that the evacuation workers were looking out for their interests and their lives.
"We have to listen to the evacuation workers. Otherwise we could be washed away by floods by now," said local villager Li Yinjiao.
Across China, millions of people have been displaced by floods. The central government has set up disaster relief funds and local authorities have set up temporary shelters across the nation just like this one.
