Rising floodwaters have forced the evacuation of 630,000 people
from the swollen Huaihe River Valley area in east China. More than
16,000 soldiers helped with the move, local flood control sources
said on Friday.
The evacuation came after more than 20 sections of dykes were
breached, affecting 1.1 million of the 1.6 million residents in the
valley, and the water showed no signs of abating.
To
prevent the swollen Huaihe River from overflowing and being
breached, water has been diverted into nine flood water diversion
areas in the past week to protect major cities and the key national
railway line running through the province.
According to an official report by the Ministry of Civil Affairs,
some 569 people have been killed during this year's floods and
direct economic losses of 39.87 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion) have
been caused.
As
of July 10, over 9.5 million hectares of farmland had been
affected, and some 1.5 million hectares had suffered total crop
failure. The normal lives and employment of nearly 140 million
people have been affected, with 51,000 people struck ill or injured
and around 2.3 million people forced from their homes.
The ministry did not give losses from previous years, but according
to reports, in 1998, more than 2,000 died in seasonal flooding.
As
the rainfall along the Huaihe River Valley still continues, the
flood situation in Hubei and Hunan provinces along the lower
reaches of the Yangtze River is deteriorating fast, posing a great
challenge to the country's emergency rescue capabilities, said the
report.
Currently, the ministry has provided 35,000 tents and cooperated
with the Ministry of Finance to allocate a total of 110.9 million
yuan (US$13.36 million) in relief funds to the 11 flood-hit
regions.
In
another development, rescue teams had recovered six bodies as of
Friday at the site where 19 road workers were buried on Wednesday
by mud-rock flows in the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest
China.
Jail evacuation
Over 5,000 prisoners evacuated from a major flood diversion area,
have been securely and safely moved.
The transfer went without a hitch and no escapes, an official from
east China's Anhui Province said.
"All of the 5,079 prisoners are safe and their lives in the new
place have been properly arranged," said a division chief surnamed
Zhou with the provincial Bureau of Justice, which manages jail
affairs.
The affected prisoners were inmates in Baihu Prison, located within
the flood diversion area of Baihu Lake.
Water released from branches of both the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers
pour into the lake to ease levels.
But continuous torrential rain raised water levels in Baihu Lake
from 10.74 meters to 11.82 meters between Tuesday morning and
Wednesday afternoon, taking it over the 11.73 meter alert
level.
Emergency measures became necessary to divert some of the waters in
order to safeguard the lives and property of residents in
neighboring counties and cities.
On
the orders of the provincial flood control and drought relief
headquarters, holes were blown in dykes encircling Baihu Prison,
said Zhou. Before these emergency measures could be taken, the
convicts had to be moved.
This began Wednesday evening and was completed by Thursday
morning.
(China Daily July 12, 2003)