BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - Rescue services braced for flooding as heavier-than-expected summer storms rolled across China as forecast on Friday, drenching Beijing and other major cities. Historically, China enters its peak rainy season in late July, but extreme weather has made storms more intense and unpredictable, exposing heavily built-up megacities with poor drainage to sudden floods and waterlogging. In Beijing, authorities have deployed this week over 2,600 people to drain 87 pumping stations in advance and clear thousands of water drainage outlets along roads, municipal authorities said in a statement on Friday. In July 2021, extreme rain in the central Henan city of Zhengzhou killed nearly 400 people, including 14 who drowned in a submerged subway line. Reporting by Ryan Woo and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Miral FahmyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Persons: drenching, Ryan Woo, Liz Lee, Miral Organizations: Beijing Public Transport, Authorities, Xinhua, China Meteorological Administration, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, China, drenching Beijing, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Wuxi city, Gansu, Zhengzhou