[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l 3 Gorges project: [AP] Yangtse dykes collapse <fwd>
resend
>Subject: "Yangtze River Embankments Collapse", AP, Aug 4 98
>
>>August 4, 1998
>>
>>Yangtze River Embankments Collapse
>>
>>Filed at 9:16 a.m. EDT
>>
>>By The Associated Press
>>
>>BEIJING (AP) -- Waterlogged levees along China's
>>flood-swollen Yangtze River have started to collapse,
>>wreaking death and destruction on a massive scale, state
>>media said today. Other reports said more than 1,000
>>people were missing.
>>
>>Torrential rains in southwest Sichuan province also have
>>triggered flooding that killed at least 20 people,
>>pushing the known death toll from floods caused by
>>unusually heavy and early summer rains to 1,288.
>>
>>With a tropical storm and another flood tide expected,
>>the threat mounted of further breaches along the
>>weakened levees that protect millions of people and rich
>>farmland from the Yangtze, the world's third-longest
>>river.
>>
>>Main Yangtze dikes remain intact but secondary levees
>>were breached in at least two counties and a city in
>>central China's Hubei province, ``causing huge loss of
>>life and property,'' the official China Youth Daily
>>reported.
>>
>>The newspaper gave no casualty figures. But a human
>>rights group said 150 soldiers and hundreds of villagers
>>were swept away when a levee suddenly collapsed Saturday
>>in Hubei's Jiayu County, about 40 miles upriver from the
>>industrial center of Wuhan.
>>
>>As of Monday, the bodies of nine soldiers had been
>>recovered, said the Information Center of Human Rights
>>and Democratic Movement in China. The Hong Kong-based
>>group said more than 1,000 people were believed missing.
>>
>>Local officials have barred foreign journalists from
>>visiting the worst flood areas, and state-controlled
>>media tend to provide delayed or conflicting accounts
>>and downplay casualties.
>>
>>The official Yangcheng Evening News said 400 soldiers
>>were swept away when the levee that had been protecting
>>56,000 people in two towns collapsed. Soldiers and
>>police pulled nearly 20,000 people from the water, the
>>newspaper said.
>>
>>In a bid to lower the Yangtze's waters, Hubei
>>authorities abandoned 11 small dikes to divert
>>floodwaters, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. The
>>strategy caused $48 million in flood damage, but helped
>>protect Wuhan.
>>
>>More than 100,000 people lost their homes when a levee
>>burst in Anxiang, in neighboring Hunan province, on July
>>24, Xinhua reported. Victims were living in tents,
>>``without adequate food and drinking water,'' the agency
>>said.
>>
>>In all, the 3,900-mile-long Yangtze was threatening to
>>burst its embankments in 3,200 places, and 1,800 of
>>these possible breaches were ``major,'' Xinhua said.
>>
>>``The flood control situation along the Yangtze remains
>>extremely serious and will remain so for the foreseeable
>>future,'' it reported.
>>
>>Millions of soldiers and civilians have been working the
>>dikes, watching for signs of collapse and plugging
>>leaks, as waters on the Yangtze reached levels unseen
>>since floods in 1954 killed more than 30,000 people.
>>
>>Aside from killing 20 people, the floods in Sichuan
>>province in recent days also injured 370 people and left
>>two others missing, Xinhua said.
>>
>>A flood peak, the fourth this year, was forming on the
>>upper reaches of the Yangtze, the China Youth Daily
>>said.
>
>
>
>||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>International Rivers Network Doris Shen
>Three Gorges Campaign threegorges@irn.org
>1847 Berkeley Way tel: 510.848.1155 ext. 317
>Berkeley, CA 94720 fax: 510.848.1008
>||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>
>
>
>
><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>¸.
·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>
Dianne Murray,
Coordinator, Dam-Reservoir Working Group
Webmistress, Dam-Reservoir Impact and Information Archive
http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/dams
vox: 1-613-520-2757 fax:1-613-520-3898 e: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
Home of Project Pisces: fish need flow!
><((((º>`·.¸·´¯`·¸><((((º>¸.·´¯`·.¸.><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`¸><((((º>