Storm hits rain-swollen Chinese lake
A thunderstorm packing high winds and torrential rains hit the area around central China’s Dongting Lake today, raising the threat to already strained dikes protecting several cities and dozens of villages.
The rain-bloated lake in Hunan province had started to recede after a flood crest in the Yangtze River safely passed, but storms could push water levels back up again.
Forecasters had predicted that the northern part of Hunan and the western provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan could be deluged by up to two inches of rain by Tuesday. The storm came after days of clear skies and hot weather.
Already, the lake was about 6ft above the danger mark at which officials feel there is a threat to the dikes rimming the 1,560-square-mile lake – China’s second largest – and along rivers flowing into it.
The dikes protect six cities and dozens of villages.
After about three hours, the storm abated and turned into a steady drizzle. Cloudy skies were forecast for the day, with temperatures expected to peak at 33C (91F).
Lightning streaked the skies and rain poured down on the streets of Yueyang, a lakeside city of 600,000, where state media said a crest on the Yangtze River late on Saturday had pushed the lake to its highest level this year.
The peak safely passed and the elaborate, 580-mile system of dikes around the lake – fortified and protected in the past week by an army of more than one million soldiers and residents – remained intact, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Floods and landslides have killed about 1,000 people across China since the rainy season began in June. More than 200 of those deaths were reported in Hunan.
While thousands of homes along Dongting’s edge outside the embankment have flooded and islands in the lake have been swamped, residents are used to the effect of flooding, a near-annual occurrence in the area.
Life has gone on mostly undisrupted in Yueyang.
But further south, villagers in Yangliuyuan struggled to cope with waters up to 13ft deep in some areas.
“The impact on our lives is huge,” said farmer Wu Yuanxi.
About 2,000 people have been evacuated to nearby schools and public buildings, said France Hurtubise, a Beijing-based regional spokeswoman for the International Federation of the Red Cross.
“It’s sad and it’s terrible. There’s water as far as the eye can see,” Ms Hurtubise said. Only tips of telephone poles were visible and many houses were completely submerged. Remaining residents waded their way through daily chores.
In the west, scores of houses along the Huarong river, which flows into the Dongting Lake, were flooded, some up to their roofs.
Zhang Jinchun, 58, left his home about two weeks ago.
“When the water level rose one level, we moved one level,” Zhang said.
“The situation now is serious. We’re scared our homes will collapse, we’re scared for our future generations,” he said. “If things get worse, what’ll we do?”
A state of emergency has been declared along the flood-swollen Yangtze River in the major industrial city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
Germany, where floodwaters are receding after causing billions in damage in the past two weeks, is providing one million sandbags to help protect Wuhan, German officials said today.
In Changsha, Hunan’s capital, officials emerging from a flood emergency meeting said waters will remain high through early September, Xinhua said.
“The flood fighting situation is serious,” it said.
Teams of six people have been posted every 165ft to watch the dikes around-the-clock along the Xiangjiang river, which runs through Changsha and into Dongting Lake, Xinhua said. The city has ordered 2,000 troops and 300,000 public employees to help battle the high waters, it said.
