Related News:
Three Gorges Dam Braces for Surge of Water on Yangtze as Floods Continue
The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest, is preparing today to hold back a new rush of flood waters on China’s Yangtze River after Premier Wen Jiabao ordered government officials to be ready for more disasters.
Water at the Three Gorges may flow at 56,000 cubic meters per second on July 28, the fastest rate since the July 20 record speed of 70,000 cubic meters per second, the operator said. The dam released water today, lowering its reservoir’s water level to 156.79 meters as of 1 p.m. local time to gird for the expected rush of water, China Three Gorges Corp. said in a statement.
Torrential rains may hit 11 Chinese province today and tomorrow, as the death toll from the nation’s worst flooding in more than a decade continued to rise. Wen ordered officials on July 24 to prepare for “more serious flooding and disasters” as 742 people were reported dead as of July 23, Xinhua News Agency said.
At least 111 people have been killed in Shaanxi province in the northwest, due to flooding in the past 11 days, Xinhua reported. Another 167 people were missing while more than 100,000 others were forced to evacuate, Xinhua said, citing the provincial government.
Floods also disputed trains traveling to western China’s Tibet, delaying some journeys to the capital city of Lhasa from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by almost 20 hours yesterday, Xinhua reported.
Parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning may see torrential rains today and tomorrow, the National Meteorological Center forecasted on its website today.
Flood Risks
Liu Ning, Vice Minister of Water Resources, called on local authorities to “closely monitor” the weather and to “step up” monitoring of potential flood risks, the China Daily newspaper cited him as saying yesterday.
Flooding in China has left 367 people missing this year and affected 120 million others as of July 23, Xinhua reported. About 670,000 homes have been destroyed and 7.6 million hectares of crops damaged, with total losses estimated at 152.4 billion yuan ($22.5 billion), according to Xinhua.
In addition to rain, the National Meteorological Center also issued high-temperature warnings today for the municipalities of Chongqing, Beijing and Tianjin, as well as for the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi. Temperatures in these regions were forecast to reach as high as 38 degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit), center said.
The provinces of Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang were forecast to see temperatures of as high as 42 degrees today and tomorrow, the weather center said.
--Vince Ni in Beijing. Editors: John Liu, Eugene Tang.
To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Vince Ni in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7580 or vni1@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page