Residents of Miyun District stood dismayed and powerless along streets reshaped by a devastating night of rain.
This northeastern suburb of Beijing, China’s sprawling capital, suffered at least 28 deaths.
Its streets and small hamlets bear the marks of being ripped through by a torrent of water.
One residential area we visit is still submerged.
Some people wade into what is left of their homes, emerging with muddied suitcases carrying any possessions they can salvage.
Others, like Mrs Feng, are unable to reach their buildings and can only speculate about what they might find when the water subsides.
“It’s a disaster from heaven,” she says, “it can’t be helped, it just happened.”
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She tells us one of the stories beginning to circulate about the desperate events that took place just hours before, saying one man “died holding his wife”.
“His wife was already dead, but the water kept coming into the house. For about an hour, he held a beam of the house with one hand, holding his wife with another.
“He couldn’t hold on anymore, he let his hand go for one second and he was washed away.”
As we talk, bulldozers strategically dump sand along the road to manage the flow of the water, and a huge winch-truck begins moving one of the many smashed cars littering the street.
Around the corner, equipped only with a small bucket to bail water out from his yard, Mr Dong describes a terrifying night.
“My two cars floated away,” he said, “I put two thick trees by the gate but they floated away.
“If me and my wife didn’t climb up to the roof, it would be over for us. The water was as high as my neck.”
He looks forlorn and exhausted as he shows us through the wreckage of his home.
The floor is now entirely thick mud, while appliances and furniture lie tangled and broken in the middle of rooms.
As we had driven into Miyun from central Beijing, we saw multiple sections of the riverbank that had been breached.
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In one small, inaccessible valley, only the tops of buildings – and what appeared to be the rear end of a lorry – were visible above the water.
It was fortunate that rain, forecast to fall right through Tuesday, appeared not to come.
Instead, the baking sun of the Beijing summer returned, while rescue operations continued and the community prepared for the even bigger task of rebuilding.
