Typhoon Chanthu hits China

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Jul 22, 2010
Chanthu hits China

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This photo shows a view of the floodwaters in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, after torrential rains hit areas contributing to the Yangtze River.
-- PHOTO: AFP

<!-- story content : start --> CHONGQING (China) - TYPHOON Chanthu lashed southern China on Thursday with punishing winds and heavy rain in the latest weather challenge for a country in which flooding has killed 700 people this year. Chanthu made landfall in Guangdong province with winds of up to 126 kilometres per hour, as the nation grapples with its worst flooding in 10 years, which is expected to continue as the typhoon season gains pace.

Chanthu's winds and rain were expected to rake Guangdong, the island province of Hainan and the Guangxi region with 'ferocious precipitation', the China Meteorological Administration warned. The typhoon made landfall near the city of Wuchuan. State-run television broadcast images of large waves crashing onto the Guangdong shore and said electricity, telecommunications and water services were cut in some areas.

Guangdong and Guangxi are among the areas already hit by torrential rains and subsequent flooding that has killed hundreds over the past several weeks and caused scores of rivers and lakes across the region to reach danger levels. At least 701 people have died from the beginning of the year to July 20, while 347 people remain missing, vice minister of water resources Liu Ning told reporters on Wednesday. The Civil Affairs Ministry said three million people have been evacuated. -- AFP

 

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A resident fills a bucket of water along the flooded Yangtze river as a ship passes in Dongliu county, Anhui province. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A factory is partially submerged by the flooded Yangtze River. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

This photo shows a view of the floodwaters in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, after torrential rains hit areas contributing to the Yangtze River.
-- PHOTO: AFP


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Residents walk across a bridge covered with water in the flooded area of Poyang, Jiangxi province. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A man stands in front of his house in a flooded area along the Yangtze River. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Chinese soldiers drop rocks into Yangtze River to fortify a dyke in Pengze county. -- PHOTO: AP


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Chinese rescue officials helptresidents climb down scaffolding to board an evacuation boat. -- PHOTO: AFP

Rescuers evacuate a woman from a flooded building in Guangan, Sichuan province. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Firemen rescue stranded workers at an expressway construction site in Yichang, China's Hubei Province. -- PHOTO: AP


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People look out onto the flooded Yangtze River in Chongqing on July 22, 2010. Flooding in China that has killed more than 700 people this year is the deadliest in a decade and looks set to worsen as the country gets deeper into typhoon season, the government warned.​

 

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A view of the flooded Yangtze River in Chongqing on July 22, 2010.​

 

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Chanthu, the third typhoon of the season, made a landfall at the coastal area of Wuchuan City, southern China's Guangdong Province, at around 1:45 p.m. Thursday.
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Floods put pressure on Dam


Jul 23, 2010
Floods put pressure on Dam

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The dam's water level could reach a new high of 150 yards (137 metres) on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The dam's maximum capacity is 175 yards. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING - 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 dam's water level could reach a new high of 150 yards (137 metres) on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The dam's maximum capacity is 175 yards.

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 US$23 billion (S$32 billion) reservoir that has displaced more than 1.4 million people.

Seven years ago, Chinese officials boasted that the Three Gorges Dam could withstand the floods so severe they come only once every 10,000 years. But as the current flooding shows no sign of waning, officials warn that its capacity is limited.

Zhao Yunfa, deputy director of the China Three Gorges Corporation's dispatch center, said this week that the dam's capacity can only withstand floods that reach up to 3 million cubic feet (83,700 cubic metres) per second - only about 18 per cent more than the dam's record water flow on Tuesday, the China Daily newspaper reported. 'The dam's flood control capacity is not unlimited,' Mr Zhao told the newspaper. -- AP

 

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Chanthu kills 3


Jul 23, 2010
Chanthu kills 3

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This photo shows a view of the floodwaters in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, after torrential rains hit areas contributing to the Yangtze River. -- PHOTO: AFP

BEIJING (China) - TYPHOON Chanthu killed three people before weakening into a tropical storm on Friday after making landfall in southern China's Guangdong province. Winds, which reached 126 kilometres per hour at the storm's centre, knocked over a wall in Guangdong's Wuchuan city, killing two people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Heavy flooding swept away a 50-year-old male resident of a local village in Hong Kong late on Thursday. Marine police said they found his body in open water on Friday morning. Chanthu has moved north to Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi region and been downgraded to a tropical storm, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement on its website.

The storm comes as China grapples with severe flooding that has left more than 701 people dead and 347 missing so far this year, according to the flood prevention agency. The death toll is the highest since 1998, when more than 4,000 people died. Damages are in the tens of billions of dollars. More torrential rains are expected across China this week, in provinces ranging from Yunnan in the south-west to Jilin in the north-east. -- AP