Rising floodwaters have forced the evacuation of 300,000 people
from the Pihe River Valley, part of the swollen Huaihe River Valley
area in east China, local flood control officials said on Friday.
Continuous heavy rains or rainstorms in the Dabie Mountain area
pushed water levels in the 253 km Pihe River almost beyond
capacity, said officials with the Flood Control Headquarters of
Liu'an City in western Anhui Province, east China.
The officials said 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 sign of
abating.
About 130,000 people are fighting floods along the river, said the
officials.
To
prevent the swollen Huaihe River from overflowing and being
breached, water has been diverted into nine floodwater diversion
areas in the past week to protect major cities and the key national
railway line running through the province.
More rain has been forecast for the Huaihe River Valley, home to
over 100 million people, before July 13.
Up
to 800,000 people were fighting floodwater along the mainstream
embankments of the Huaihe River as water levels at all major
hydraulic stations exceeded the warning marks.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2003)
