Society

Villagers flee as reservoirs overflow in east China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-15 21:26

NANCHANG - About 1,000 people in three villages in east China's Jiangxi Province were forced to evacuate their homes Thursday after water spilling over two reservoirs flooded their homes.

Soilders help a 92-year-old man for evacuation from an flooded village in Poyang County, northern Jiangxi Province on July 15,2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

Continued torrential rains Thursday caused two reservoirs to overflow in Poyang County, northern Jiangxi Province, said the county's flood control headquarters.

Villagers have been moved to higher ground, while more than 700 soldiers, fire fighters and workers race to dig and widen waterways to drain the two overflowing reservoirs and about another 60 reservoirs that are about to burst their banks in Poyang County.

About another 400 more soldiers were on their way to sites, said the headquarters.

The homes of 50,000 of Xiejiatan Town's 80,000 residents were flooded Wednesday after reservoirs on the upper reaches of Xihe River, in neighboring Anhui Province, opened sluices to discharge water, said Chen Feng, the town chief.

The town was inundated by waters an average 1.5 meters deep. Water levels in several of town's villages reached 3 meters.

Residents have been moved to higher ground in the town or neighboring towns. More than 200 soldiers are still racing to rescue those who stayed at the higher floors of their homes.

No casualties have been reported so far.

Jiangxi's flood control headquarters said the rains would continue through to Friday.

The heavy rainfall caused four reservoirs to overflow Wednesday in Poyang, forcing 10,000 people to leave their homes to higher grounds in the county.

Water levels at the reservoirs, three in Poyang and one in Duchang County, had dropped to about a meter below the dikes late Wednesday after workers dug emergency drainage channels, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Heavy downpours in parts of central and eastern China have caused waterlines in major lakes and tributaries of the Yangtze River to rise to alarming levels.

Parts of China experience heavy rains every summer, but this year's rains have been particularly devastating.

Since the beginning of July, torrential rains and severe flooding has left 118 people dead, 47 missing and forced the evacuation of more than a million people in 10 provinces, mostly along the Yangtze River, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said late Wednesday.