For many migrant workers caught up in severe flooding in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, crossing town to stay with relatives in less affected areas or returning to their homes in the countryside are not posssible. They must stay put, tied to livelihoods in inundated parts of the city and living too far away from families to reach them when transportation is so badly disrupted. That means surviving without power and running water for days and counting, difficulty moving around Zhengzhou and mounting worry over how they are going to get back to work. Hu, a 40-year-old construction worker from Shandong province who gave only his surname, is one of them. He rations his food and water, and ventures out into waist-high, mud-coloured water once a day in search of cell phone reception. “I can’t simply go back to my hometown. I work […]