Cave Refuge

The debris clearance process in Pengcheng was proceeding extremely smoothly, and the officials were thrilled, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the convoy from Kyoto.

As time passed, what was once a light drizzle gradually intensified, along with the gusty wind, making it incredibly challenging for the survivors to carry out their tasks outside.

Seeing the weather conditions, the officials could only instruct the streets to halt all non-essential activities, allowing the survivors to rest at home temporarily and resume work after the torrential rain ceased.

However, while everyone was resting at home, no one expected that the rapidly increasing rainfall would flood the uninhabited underground refuge center within a matter of days.

Since everyone was indoors escaping the rain, this situation wasn't noticed, hence the impending flood crisis was not known.

The downpour rolled in like a waterfall obstructing the sky. After the underground refuge center was submerged, the ground began to accrete water in Pengcheng.

With the heavy downpour, the height of the water on the street began to rise gradually. Some survivors residing on the first floor noticed water accumulating in their homes and began to panic.

However, under such circumstances, they were helpless and could only pray for the weather to clear soon.

Unfortunately, their prayers seemed to have no effect. The sky was like an endless waterfall, with no signs of the rain easing off in the least.

When the rising water began to submerge the ankles of the survivors living on the first floor, everyone felt some fear but could only take shelter on their beds and pray silently.

When the water started to reach the knees of the survivors living on the first floor, some savvy survivors living on the first floor started to pack their belongings in advance and evacuate their homes.

When the water on the ground reached over a meter high, everyone living on the first floor became panicked, with the majority of people leaving their homes, moving upstairs to seek refuge.

Under the veil of the rain, in Pengcheng, the water level on the roads got higher and higher, gradually submerging the first floor, with no sign of it ceasing its rise.

The water gradually engulfed the first floor, second floor, third floor, and by the time it reached the fourth floor, the water depth in Pengcheng had reached approximately ten meters.

Although Pengcheng is a quasi-second-tier city, it has its fair share of high-rise buildings. However, many apartment blocks built during the 80s and 90s, typically of six or seven stories high, densely populated these districts.

When the water depth reached around one meter, the officials had already advised all the streets to activate flood red alerts, instructing the streets to arrange personnel to guide all lower-level residents to seek refuge in high-rise buildings.

When the accumulated water reached around three meters, the officials arranged for rescue boats to perform patrol rescues.

Compared to other districts, due to the presence of Jade Dragon Lake, the West City District had a higher number of rescue boats, with the high-ranking West City District officials relocating to a cruise ship on Jade Dragon Lake.

Speaking of the cruise ship on Jade Dragon Lake, as the only floating restaurant on the lake, it stretches more than seventy meters long and is over twenty meters wide, making it one of the largest in the lake.

Blustery conditions were extremely unfriendly to survivors. Although they weren't as restrictive as the conditions during the Cold Catastrophe where it was impossible to go outside, as soon as one tried to leave the shelter of buildings, regardless of whether they were under umbrellas or wearing raincoats, they would be drenched to the bone in less than a minute.

As for the lower half of the body, there was no fear once it was submerged in water.

The adverse weather did not affect Dong Tianyu, who was hiding in the cave mansion, at all. Meanwhile, Mr. Thompson, who was living in the office building on the thirtieth floor, stood before the panoramic window, observing the scene outside.

Of course, even when the weather was clear, it was extremely challenging to observe the ground level from the thirtieth floor, let alone now in the throes of pouring rain, where Mr. Thompson couldn't see anything at all.

"The rain is getting heavier outside. Haiyang just reported through a walkie-talkie that the accumulated water has submerged the second floor and is still rising. Looking at this situation, the third floor will probably be flooded soon.

It seems Tianyu's prediction was correct, our preparations in advance were not wasted."

Upon hearing the words of Mr. Hai, Mr. Thompson turned his gaze from the window to the interior. At that moment, the room was only occupied by Mr. Hai, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Thompson's second brother.

"Since the first floor has been flooded, does that mean Tianyu's prediction was wrong, and other people won't be entering here anymore?"

Hearing his second brother's doubtful words, Mr. Thompson retorted directly: "How does the flooding of the first-floor exit matter? If someone really wants to enter the office building, there's no need to use the first-floor entrance; they can simply break the glass."

Upon hearing Mr. Thompson's explanation, his second brother sighed somewhat helplessly. He actually thought of this method, but was hoping that maybe others didn't know about the break-the-window approach.

The exterior wall of modern high-rise buildings is fitted with multi-layer tempered glass which, under normal circumstances, is very difficult to break. The strength of tempered glass is beyond many people's imagination.

However, this glass has a weakness. As long as the four corners are struck, the tempered glass will instantly develop cracks, making it easy to break through.

Within a day, the accumulated water had risen above the fourth floor and began to spread to the fifth. At this point, many residents living in the older apartment buildings were completely panicked, as most of these old residential buildings were generally six or seven stories high.

Once the water submerged the fourth floor, many people disregarded the heavy rain pouring from the sky and climbed onto rooftops to take refuge. Fear spread across everyone's faces.

Due to its proximity to Jade Dragon Lake, the local neighborhood was able to source several cruise ships from the lake for personnel evacuation. Although each cruise ship could only carry around twenty people at a time, and due to engine damage, the power of the cruise ships had to come from human strength, having them was still better than none.

Luckily, the rapid development of Pengcheng over the years meant that many old apartment complexes had been demolished and rebuilt into new blocks. So, many of these older complexes were surrounded by newly constructed high-rise buildings, shortening the distance the cruise ships had to travel significantly.

Apart from cruise ship transport, it was essential for the survivors to help themselves. The authorities stretched ropes between many building floors. These ropes, similar to the ones found in swimming pools, facilitated the non-swimmers to move in the water and provided leverage for those who could swim.

As Pengcheng had a water park, many households owned swimming rings. These summer toys prepared for water play now played a vital role.

The ropes linking up all the floors enabled those with swimming rings and those who could swim to leave on their own, like ants migrating, greatly reducing the pressure on the cruise ships for transport.

The flood had officially hit. Although its lethality wasn't as severe as the Cold Catastrophe, the survivors underestimated its power. During the hasty evacuation, they were flustered and didn't bring any important belongings.