Record water levels test China's giant dam
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Saturday, July 24, 2010
Heavy rain have exacted a high toll in China this year, and Friday the country faced a new threat from the Yangtze River dam that was dangerously close to capacity
The water level reached its peak at the huge Three Gorges Dam, built
to tame the worst floods, reported state-run Xinhua news agency.
Floodgates on the dam have been opened to control the flow, and
pictures from the scene show massive volumes of water gushing out.
The
water, steadily rising since Tuesday, rose to 159 meters (more than 520
feet), about 14 meters (46 feet) above the reservoir's water-releasing
level, engineers in Yichang City told Xinhua.
Downstream from
the dam, nervous residents on Mianchuan island nervously watched
soldiers reinforce banks with rocks, the China Daily newspaper reported.
They
recalled the massive floods of 1998 when the banks collapsed and water
topped houses in Mianchuan. More than 4,000 people died in that
disaster.
Floods this year have been the worst since then,
affecting 120 million people in 28 provinces and claiming 742 human
lives. They have caused $22 billion in economic losses, including the
collapse of about 670,000 homes, Xinhua said.
A recent series of severe storms has exacerbated the situation.
The
latest, Typhoon Chanthu, the third typhoon of the West Pacific season,
weakened Thursday as it made its way over land but dumped more rain in
an already inundated region.