[DagoIgnog]

Jul 24, 2010
100,000 evacuated in China



Firemen trying to clean up flood mud street by Jialing River. -- PHOTO: AFP

BEIJING - CHINA evacuated more than 100,000 people as a river burst its banks and heavy rains continued in flood-hit regions along the perilously swollen Yangtze river, state media said on Saturday. At least 100,000 were evacuated from their homes in south-western Sichuan province after torrential rains caused waters to rise sharply in the Jialing River, a provincial news website said.

The Jialing is a major tributary of the Yangtze, China's longest river. China has seen its worst flooding in a decade, leaving at least 1,100 people dead or missing, causing massive economic losses, and impacting 120 million people, the government has said. In Shaanxi province on Sichuan's north, the Luofu river burst its banks in the city of Huayin, forcing 6,400 people from their homes, official Xinhua news agency said. The Luofu feeds into the Yellow river, China's second-longest. -- AFP

[DagoIgnog]

A Chinese man rides a tricycle at a bus station submerged in the flooded Yangtze River in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Record-high water levels at China's massive Three Gorges Dam have called into question Beijing's claims that the world's largest hydroelectric project could withstand a 10,000-year flood. The water level reached 518 feet (158 meters) Saturday morning, just 55 feet (17 meters) from the reservoir's maximum capacity of 573 feet
(175 meters). -- PHOTO: AP




A man paddles on a makeshift raft at a bus station submerged in the flooded Yangtze River in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. China has for years promoted the Three Gorges Dam as the best way to end centuries of floods along the Yangtze River basin and dismissed complaints about the enormous environmental impact of the $23 billion reservoir that has displaced more than 1.4 million people. -- PHOTO: AP




A father pulls his child out of the flood waters close to the Yangtze River. -- PHOTO: AFP

[DagoIgnog]

Two men wade through knee-deep mud on the banks of the junction of the flooded Yangtze River and Jialin River. -- PHOTO: AFP




A boy swims in the flooded Yangtze River. -- PHOTO: AFP




Floodwaters in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, after torrential rains hit Yangtze River areas. -- PHOTO: AFP