Fuhe River breaches bank again in Jiangxi
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As of Monday, the water level of all the 26 rivers in Jiangxi has gone above the warning line, while the water level of six rivers, such as Xinjiang river and Fuhe river, has hit a record high. |
The Fuhe River breached its bank again at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday in east China's Jiangxi Province, the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.
Residents were evacuated the previous night, and no casualties have been reported, the headquarters said.
The width of the breach near Changhu Village, Luozhen Township, Fuzhou City, which also belongs to the Changkai section of the river, is unknown, municipal flood control officials said.
The dike at the Lingshan Hejia part of the river's Changkai section first broke at 6:30 p.m. Monday, threatening the safety of about 100,000 residents, who have now all been evacuated.
Shi Jinxiang, a villager from Luozhen Township trapped on the roof of her house with her child and parents for one-and-half days, was rescued Wednesday morning.
"Water inundated my house and so we climbed onto the roof. I am so grateful to the rescuers. We were starving for more than ten hours," she said.
More than 15,000 soldiers and civilians have been mobilized by the provincial government for the rescue and relief work, the headquarters said.
People's Armed Police officer Yang Pinwang, dispatched to the affected area Monday, has slept less than six hours since he arrived.
Monks also helped in the rescue efforts. About a dozen monks from nearby Zhengjue Temple drove two vehicles loaded with food and water to the township to give out to the floods' victims.
"Hearing the dike breach, we felt we should do something. So we raised 20,000 yuan (2,936 U.S. dollars) to buy bottled water and biscuits. We also made steamed bread and stuffed buns at temple and distributed them along the road," said Jing Yong, a senior monk.
The heavy rains and floods have ravaged 10 southern Chinese regions, leaving 199 dead and 123 missing as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, a Ministry of Civil Affairs statement said.
More than 29 million people in the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities -- Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou -- have been affected by the weather, with 2.376 million evacuated, the statement said Tuesday.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday called for all-out efforts to combat the floods and save lives after the dike burst Monday in Jiangxi.
Many regions in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, as well as in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, would be hit by rainstorms and torrential rains from Wednesday to Saturday, the National Meteorological Center forecast Tuesday.
The flood has brought back memories of the severe Yangtze River flooding in southern China in 1998, when 230 million residents were affected, 3,656 killed and 20.44 million displaced.
