Rainfall on early Thursday has increased the difficulty of
operations to pump out water from two flooded coal mines in east
China's Shandong Province to reach 181 miners that have been
trapped for 13 days.
Latest information from the rescue operation headquarters said
that it started to rain in Xintai at 2?AM on Thursday, but
stopped around 8 a.m. The amount of rainfall reached 18.5 mm.
"The sudden rainfall has adversely affected the rescue efforts,
but the operation will go on anyway," said an official in charge of
the rescue operation.
Flood water swept through a 65-meter wide breach in the Wenhe
River levee on Aug. 17, inundating the Huayuan and Minggong mines,
leaving 181 people trapped underground.
Chinese water resources specialists have blamed the disaster
largely on heavy rain and inadequate flood prevention
facilities.
Eleven pumps are busy working near the mines, of which eight are
installed at Daqiao ventilation passage of Huayuan Coal Mine and
capable of piping out 6,000 cubic meters of water per hour,
according to Wang Baoshan, who is overseeing water pumping
operation at the two coal mines.
One more water pump that was trucked in from central China's
Henan Province is still under installation at Huayuan coal mine and
would be put into service on Thursday.
By 6 a.m. on Thursday, water level in the shaft of Huayuan coal
mine dropped to 51.3 meters, 41.3 meters down from the highest
level. But rescuers have to lower the water level by another 81.70
meters to reach the 172 trapped miners.
In the nearby Minggong coal mine, water level lowered to 51.45
meters.
(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2007)