China flooding leaves thousands trapped after levees fail, another dam at risk of breaking
At least 141 people have died or are missing in flooding since the beginning of June
More than 10,000 people are trapped in a town in eastern China as flooding across much of the country renews pressure on dams.
The provincial government in Anhui province said online that on Sunday floodwaters breached levees protecting the town of Guzen and left area residents trapped.
Wang Qingjun, Guzhen’s Communist Party secretary, told the official Xinhua News Agency that floodwater rose as high as 10 feet in the region.
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State media outlets reported that around 1,500 firefighters rushed to rescue those in the province, where weeks of heavy rain have disrupted the lives of more than 3 million people.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial photo shows the extent of flooding in Guzhen Town of Lu’an City in eastern China’s Anhui Province on July 20. (Tang Yang/Xinhua via AP)
In central China’s Hubei Province, local governments urged residents to prepare for evacuations due to a growing risk of dams that may break.
The Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture government said a landslide along the Qingjiang River increased the threat of dam failure there, according to the Global Times.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial photo shows the extent of flooding in Guzhen Town of Lu’an City in eastern China’s Anhui Province on July 20. (Tang Yang/Xinhua via AP)
China’s Meteorological Administration warned that more heavy rain along the Yellow River and Huai River is expected over the next three days.
In Jiangxi province, 45-year-old Xu Yongxiang told China Youth Daily his village of Liufang had been without running water or electricity for almost a week.
“We do not have 1 inch of dry ground. It has all been flooded,” he said online.
DEVASTATING CHINA FLOODING PUTS CONTROVERSIAL THREE GORGES DAM UNDER NEW SCRUTINY
Last week, the controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze opened three floodgates as the water level behind the massive dam rose more than 50 feet above flood level.
Additional rainfall is putting renewed pressure on the dam, which straddles the mighty Yangtze River.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from sluiceways at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River near Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province, July 17. (Wang Gang/Xinhua via AP)
The official Xinhua News Agency said the rate of flow in the reservoir behind the dam would hit a record for the year Friday night, at 55,000 cubic meters (almost 600,000 cubic feet) per second.
The inflow peaked Saturday at 61,000 cubic meters per second, before easing to 46,000 by Sunday night, Xinhua reported.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, floodwaters are discharged at the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei province on July 19. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP)
State media outlets have insisted that the massive dam is stable amid the flooding and that its operations are “safe and sound,” the Global Times reported.
“The Three Gorges Project is not so ‘fragile’ as some people have imagined… it has prevented large floods,” the dam’s operator, China Three Gorges Corp. (CTG), told the Global Times. “Speculation without scientific monitoring data is irresponsible and unprofessional, or out of ulterior motives!”
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At least 141 people have died or are missing in flooding since the beginning of June, with more than 150,000 houses damaged and direct economic losses estimated at about $9 million.
The Kwanyin temple built on a rocky island in the middle of the Yangtze River is seen flooded as the water level surge along Ezhou in central China’s Hubei province on Sunday, July 19, 2020. (Chinatopix Via AP)
On Sunday, a dam in Anhui was blasted to allow floodwaters to flow downriver. The province’s Wangjiaba dam on the Huai River opened its 13 sluice gates on Monday, flooding cropland and forests to prevent more extensive damage downriver.
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Seasonal flooding strikes large parts of China each year, especially in its central and southern regions, but conditions this year have been especially bad due to heavy rainfall.
China experienced its worst flooding in recent years in 1998 when more than 2,000 people died and almost 3 million homes were destroyed, mostly along the Yangtze.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.