More than 6.5 million people in mainland China have been evacuated in emergency efforts and many more are affected as torrential rain drenched the south of the country in recent weeks.

Floods caused by heavy downpours have affected 11.22 million people across 26 cities or districts as of Tuesday, according to the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management. Emergency evacuations have moved 6.57 million of these people to safety.

More than 171,000 houses were damaged, of which 300 had collapsed, and 213,000 emergency calls for rescue and aid were received. A total of 861,000 hectares of farmland were inundated.

Losses due to the floods were estimated at 24.1 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion).

Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi are among the southern provinces hit, with water levels along the Yangtze River on the rise.

About 900 reservoirs along the river were ordered to discharge after reaching their maximum capacity, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.

At the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, the waters reached 147 meters at one point, two meters above its flood control line, triggering concerns that the dam could burst under the strain.

Zhang Boting, deputy secretary of the China Society for Hydropower Engineering, told mainland Chinese media that the flood control line was lowered in the flooding season from the 175 meters in force during normal times to create a buffer.

On concerns about water displacement, Zhang said it was an occurrence in all types of buildings and other structures when pressure was high. He said a displacement of less than 30 millimeters of the dam downstream was “normal.”

---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app
To know more: https://bit.ly/2yMMfQE
Apple Daily mobile app latest version DOWNLOAD NOW