A brutal windstorm that swept through Nanchang in China’s Jiangxi Province on Sunday, March 31, 2024 resulted in the death of three people after they were torn from their high-rise apartments. The tragic incident happened in a waterfront neighborhood located in the city’s southern region, where the victims were asleep around 3 a.m. as the storm attacked the exterior walls of their buildings.
The catastrophic storm led to the deaths of at least seven people, affecting nine urban areas, including Nanchang and Jiujiang. Jiangxi Provincial Emergency Flood Control Headquarters reported that the harsh weather conditions had impacted about 93,000 citizens across 54 counties.
The victims from the high-rise building have been identified as a 64-year-old woman, her 11-year-old grandson, and another 60-year-old woman. Their identities were initially revealed through messages in a neighborhood chat group and were later confirmed by local emergency authorities, as reported by Jimu News, a news agency based in Hubei.
The story of the 60-year-old woman has generated a nationwide conversation, especially on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, with over 300 million views by Monday. Video footage from the scene displayed her 11th-story apartment’s extensive damage, with a vast hole left where the windows once stood, and the remnants of an empty bed frame and shredded curtains visible within the wreckage.
A detailed account from the woman’s partner, identified only by his surname Wan, depicted the terrifying moments when he woke to the storm’s wrath. In a conversation with local media, he described waking up at 3 a.m. to the chaos caused by the storm and his balcony’s glass shattering due to the wind. He had slept in a different room from his partner that night and went to wake her. “I ran to the room to get my partner but got no answer when I called out,” he said. His daughter later shared with reporters that her father found his partner’s body outside the apartment building.
An equally heartbreaking loss involved the 64-year-old woman and her grandson, with the surnames Liu and Xu, who were sharing a bedroom on the 20th floor. They were swept away along with their mattress.
Subsequent media coverage showed numerous apartments in the neighborhood stripped of their glass facades, revealing distorted frames. This has prompted questions about the construction quality of the affected high-rise buildings. Scrutiny has particularly been directed at a former manager at the development company who was convicted of bribery, but it’s still unclear if there’s a direct connection between his actions and the buildings’ structural integrity.
Despite some claims that the glass facades were installed by a decoration company chosen by the owners, the incident has sparked a broader discussion regarding construction standards and regulatory oversight.
