More quake related water news.
A terrible tragedy.
Posted without further comment.
Peter Huston
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aG2Qc7bYPJts&refer=asia
China Sends Troops as Quake Waters Threaten 700,000 (Update4)
By Tian Ying and Paul Tighe
Enlarge Image/Details
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- China sent troops and police to try to prevent floods threatening more than 700,000 survivors of the country's deadliest earthquake in 32 years in Sichuan province, as weather forecasters said thunderstorms were on the way.
Military engineers carrying dynamite arrived early today at the site of a lake created by landslides that lies 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from Tangjiashan in Beichuan County, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Helicopters also dropped men and equipment, it said.
The lake is one of 34 in Sichuan posing a danger to people, E. Jingping, deputy minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, said yesterday. While the lakes are ``under control,'' there is a high danger from flooding, he said.
The strongest aftershock since the May 12 quake struck the region yesterday, killing eight people. The quake two weeks ago killed 65,080 people and left 23,150 missing, the government said today. The death toll may rise to more than 80,000, Premier Wen Jiabao said two days ago, as he toured the area with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Evacuation plans have been prepared for communities near 19 lakes, E. Jingping said. Sixty-nine reservoirs are in ``immediate'' danger of bursting and measures, such as draining the worst-damaged constructions, are being taken.
Dangerous Levels
Tangjiashan is the most dangerous of the lakes because its water level rose almost 2 meters on May 24. Soldiers will try to blast its landslide barrier away to drain the water, Xinhua cited an unidentified army officer as saying.
Areas around the disaster zone may have thunderstorms and strong winds today and tomorrow, according to the China Meteorological Administration's forecast today. Thunderstorms may increase the risk of flooding on rivers that have been blocked by landslides, it said.
Yesterday's 6.4 magnitude temblor jolted Qingchuan county in Sichuan, according to the China National Seismic Network. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.
More than 900 people were injured and about 270,000 houses destroyed or damaged, adding to the more than 4.7 million leveled earlier this month in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.
The government earlier called for 3.3 million tents and said it will build 1.5 million temporary houses for quake survivors.
Man Rescued
An 80-year-old disabled man was rescued alive in Mianzhu city of Sichuan, 11 days after the May 12 earthquake, the China News Agency reported yesterday.
A giant panda named Xi Xi was captured today in woods near the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong, Xinhua said. Five of six pandas that disappeared from the center after the quake have been found.
The 7.9-magnitude temblor two weeks ago left more than 5 million homeless. President Hu Jintao ordered domestic manufacturers to make more tents as the relief effort, which rescued almost 84,000 people from the rubble of collapsed buildings, now focuses on housing, feeding survivors and preventing the spread of disease.
The earthquake devastated highways and roads throughout Sichuan, causing 47.8 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) of damage and slowing relief efforts, Xinhua reported, citing the province's transportation department.
The government is setting up a 70 billion yuan fund to pay for reconstruction, and government departments have been told to cut spending by 5 percent to divert funds for rebuilding. Disaster-relief allocations reached 15 billion yuan yesterday.
The May 12 earthquake was the most powerful to hit China, the world's most populous country, since a magnitude 8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526 people. A 7.5 magnitude temblor in Tangshan in the northeast killed 250,000 in 1976, according to the USGS. China's seismology department said the Sichuan quake had a magnitude of 8.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tian Ying in Beijing on ytian@bloomberg.net; Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: May 26, 2008 09:12 EDT
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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-05/26/content_6710739.htm
Team sets off to blast lake barrier
By Wu Jiao in Beijing and Fu Jing in Deyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-26 07:29
About 1,800 military personnel were last night trekking toward an expanding quake lake near worst-hit Beichuan county, hoping to blast away its landslide barrier before it bursts and causes a flood.
The Tangjiashan quake lake, 3.2 km upstream from the devastated Beichuan county seat, was formed because massive landslides partially blocked the Qianjiang River.
Its barrier is in danger of bursting as the water level rose by nearly 2 m on Saturday to 723 m, only 29 m below the lowest part of the barrier. The coverage of the lake has reached 3,550 sq km, a size of a mid-sized city, according to the latest figures.
"Each of the team has 10 kg of dynamite, and they are expected to arrive at the site tonight," a PLA spokesman told Xinhua Sunday.
Earlier attempts to send military helicopters on the same mission were hampered by adverse weather and low visibility at the Tangjiashan lake site.
Yesterday, the PLA soldiers were trying to reach the lake through mountain paths or on boats after the transport network collapsed after the May 12 quake.
The local meteorological bureau forecast high winds and thunderstorms Sunday and today for the area.
More than 20,000 people downstream have been evacuated, officials said.
"They are safe but urgently need tents," Liu Tangyun, an official with the anti-flood and drought headquarters of Jiangyou city where about 20,000 residents were evacuated by noon on Saturday, told China Daily.
Liu said the government had sent emergency teams to prevent residents from returning to their homes.
The Tangjiashan quake lake is one of the 35 large-scale quake lakes formed after the May 12 earthquake, aftershocks and landslides that jolted southwest China.
Thirty-four of them are in Sichuan, posing a new danger to more than 700,000 of the people who survived the deadly quake, Vice-Minister of Water Resources E Jingping said in Beijing Sunday.
Though three of them have burst, all are "under control", the vice-minister said Sunday.
But heavy rains forecast for the area over the next three days are a major threat, as the water build-up in the lakes could cause the landslide barriers that formed them to burst and flood nearby areas, E told a news conference held by the State Council Information Office.
Workers also plan to dig tunnels to drain water from dozens of other unstable lakes except in Tangjiashan. The government fears that as water levels rise, they could burst, drowning survivors and rescue workers downstream.
At an emergency meeting Sunday in Chengdu, the Sichuan capital, Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu ordered rescuers to eliminate the risk "with utmost effort and within the shortest possible time".
The Ministry of Water Resources has drawn up evacuation plans for communities downstream of the 19 quake lakes at a higher risk of bursting, E said.
Another 310 reservoirs were in a "highly dangerous" situation and more than 1,400 posed a moderate risk, E said.
Xinhua contributed to the story.
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