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dam-l Thawing ice threatens to flood millions
Friday, February 18, 2000
Thawing ice threatens to flood millions
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Millions of people living along the Yellow River are threatened with
flooding as vast amounts of snow and ice begin to thaw after the winter,
state media reported yesterday.
Experts said preventing blockage of the river by chunks of ice breaking
away from the frozen river mass would be "quite formidable", the China
Daily reported.
"Although ice-jamming of the river has been under control so far, ice
floods in the middle reaches of the river are likely to be worsened with
further rising temperatures upstream in the days ahead," an official with
flood prevention authorities said.
The air force may be forced to blast blocks of ice to free up the river,
as a 1,200km stretch has thawed already, the report said.
There were fears earlier this month that the partially frozen Yangtze
River could also cause flooding.
Last year's floods killed 800 people, injured 24,000 and displaced 5.5
million. The 1998 floods claimed 4,000 lives.
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Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright © 2000. All rights
reserved.
Doris Shen
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
doris@irn.org
tel: 510.848.1155 ext. 317
fax: 510.848.1008
http://www.irn.org
http://www.floodwallstreet.org