More than 10,000 people are trapped in a city in eastern China, as floods in much of the country renew pressure on dams.
The provincial government of Anhui province said online that the flood waters on Sunday breached levees that protected the city of Guzen and left residents of the area trapped.
Wang Qingjun, secretary of the Guzhen Communist Party, told the official Xinhua News Agency that the flood water rose to 10 feet in the region.
CHINA’S FLOOD DEATH PEA RISES AS SURGENT WATERS ACTIVATE NEW ALERTS, DAM RISES
State media reported that around 1,500 firefighters rushed to rescue those in the province, where weeks of heavy rain have affected the lives of more than 3 million people.
In this photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, an aerial photo shows the extent of the flooding in the Guzhen city of Lu’an city in the eastern Anhui province of China on July 20.
(Tang Yang / Xinhua via AP)
In central China’s Hubei province, local governments urged residents to prepare for evacuations due to the increasing risk of dams that could break.
The Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture government said that a landslide along the Qingjiang River increased the threat of dam failure there, according to the Global Times.
In this photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, an aerial photo shows the extent of the flooding in the Guzhen city of Lu’an city in the eastern Anhui province of China on July 20.
(Tang Yang / Xinhua via AP)
The China Meteorological Administration warned that more heavy rains are expected along the Yellow River and the Huai River in the next three days.
In Jiangxi province, Xu Yongxiang, 45, told the China Youth Daily that his Liufang village had been without running water or electricity for nearly a week.
“We don’t have 1 inch of dry land. Everything has been flooded, “she said online.
DEVASTATING THE FLOOD OF CHINA PUTS THREE GORGES DAM CONTROVERSIAL UNDER NEW SCRUTINY
Last week, the controversial Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze opened three floodgates when the water level behind the massive dam rose more than 50 feet above the flood level.
The additional rain is putting renewed pressure on the dam, which runs on both sides of the mighty Yangtze River.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, water flows from the locks at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River near Yichang, in central Hubei province, on July 17.
(Wang Gang / Xinhua via AP)
The official Xinhua News Agency said the flow rate in the reservoir behind the dam would hit a record for the year on Friday night, at 55,000 cubic meters (nearly 600,000 cubic feet) per second.
The inlet reached 61,000 cubic meters per second on Saturday, before dropping to 46,000 on Sunday night, Xinhua reported.
In this photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, flood waters are discharged into the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei province on July 19.
(Xiao Yijiu / Xinhua via AP)
State media have insisted that the massive dam is stable amid the floods and that its operations are “safe and sound,” the Global Times reported.
“The Three Gorges Project is not as ‘fragile’ as some people have imagined … it has prevented major flooding,” dam operator China Three Gorges Corp. (CTG) told the Global Times. “Speculation without scientific monitoring data is irresponsible and unprofessional, or for hidden reasons!”
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At least 141 people have died or are missing in the floods since early 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 flooded as the water level rises along Ezhou in central China’s Hubei Province on Sunday, July 19, 2020.
(Chinatopix via AP)
On Sunday, a dam in Anhui was destroyed to allow the waters to flow downstream. The province’s Wangjiaba dam on the Huai River opened its 13 gates on Monday, flooding farmland and forests to prevent further damage downstream.
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Seasonal floods hit large parts of China every year, especially in its central and southern regions, but conditions this year have been especially bad due to heavy rains.
China experienced its worst flood in recent years in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and nearly 3 million homes were destroyed, mainly along the Yangtze.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
