A
soldier carries an elderly woman in the flood water in Chizhou city, east
China's Anhui province, July 10, 2007. (Xinhua Photo)
BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhua) -- China's central
government set aside 232 million yuan (about 31.35 million U.S. dollars) on
Wednesday to finance the ongoing battle against floods in Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan,
Hubei and Sichuan provinces.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao
urged local governments to try to improve weather monitoring, give priority to
safety and properly relocate people in flood-hit areas.
Cheng Dianlong, deputy director of the office of the
State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said the emergency relief
fund would be used to help relocate residents from the Mengwa Buffer Zone which
was deliberately submerged on Tuesday to weaken the flood peaks of the Huaihe
River.
The operation has so far had little effect. At 4:00
a.m. on Wednesday, the water level at Wangjiaba was 29.59 meters. It fell
slightly to 29.55 meters at noon but remains highly dangerous.
At the request of flood-control and drought relief
departments of Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces, the headquarters dispatched
Wednesday 100 rubber boats, 900,000 woven sacks and 800,000 water-proof knitted
fabric garments to the flood-ravaged areas.
Cheng Dianlong said that this is the second worst
flood on the Huaihe River since 1954, with hydrological stations along the river
reporting water levels 2 to 3.5 meters above their warning marks.
Some 488,400 people have been evacuated from the
likely path of floodwater from China's Huaihe River, including 343,900 from
Anhui Province.
More than half a million people from the three
provinces have been mobilized to patrol water dams and riverbanks
around-the-clock to detect and prevent dangerous conditions. Twelve new risky
conditions were detected on Wednesday.
In the Yangtze River valley, four helicopters have
been dispatched to help evacuate 658 people in Longchang County of Southwestern
Sichuan Province. The 3,700 people trapped by flood water in Luxian County have
been rescued and transported to safety.
No critical dangers have been reported as the water
level along the Yangtze River is receding, Cheng said.
The central government also sent several working
teams to flood-stricken areas to guide disaster relief work. One of the working
teams, headed by civil affairs minister Li Xueju, arrived in Anhui on Wednesday.
WANGJIABA, Anhui, July 11 (Xinhua) -- China's waterway
authority ordered the opening of 13 sluices at Wangjiaba, on the swollen Huaihe
River, on Tuesday to divert flood waters to adjacent Mengwa buffer zone, home to
150,000 people.
The move should bring relief to more than 2 million
flood-hit residents in Henan Province, on the upper reaches of the Huaihe River,
and alleviate pressure downstream, said Qiu Ruitian, deputy director of the
Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Full story
YINGSHANG, Anhui Province, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Almost half
a million people have been evacuated from the projected path of floodwaters from
China's Huaihe River, which is expected to see its worst flooding since 1954.
About 343,900 of the 488,800 relocated people came
from Anhui Province and the rest from the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu. Full story
QUXIAN, Sichuan, July 10 (Xinhua) -- More than
150,000 people in southwest China survived an early morning flood thanks to
timely government warnings delivered by mobile phone text messages, loudspeakers
and door-to-door visits.
"The flood was so sudden I would have drowned if I
had not received the messages," said Zhang Xue'an, a resident of Qujiang in
Quxian in Sichuan Province. Full story
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