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Yangtze flood crest pushes through central China
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| A soldier on flood patrol Monday | |
Web posted at: 12:56 p.m. EDT (1656 GMT)
In this story:
- Official death toll doubles
- Flood season to continue into winter?
- Poor land-use contributed to floods
- Related stories and sites
SHASHI, China (CNN) -- China's exhausted flood fighters remained on guard Tuesday as a new surge of high water barreled down the Yangtze River, threatening to overwhelm dikes weakened by a summer of devastating floods.
The government denied reports of large-scale casualties but it warned that the devastation could last until December if typhoons came late this year.
China's flood control headquarters described the situation as "extremely serious." It warned that along a 180-mile stretch of the river, water levels stood at historic highs and some places have been inundated for 60 days or more.
The new Yangtze flood crest -- the seventh so far in a summer of flooding that has killed thousands of people and left millions homeless -- was expected to plunge through the Three Gorges Dam and enter the middle Yangtze on Tuesday.
Zhou Wenzhi, vice minister of water resources, said the crest was expected to reach the city of Shashi by Tuesday night.
But water levels on the river at Shashi were expected to remain below 148.5 feet (45.26 meters) -- the level at which officials have said they might dynamite dikes to deliberately flood an area where half a million people live to save cities downstream.
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| A boy eats bread distributed by soldiers | |
This summer has seen the worst flooding in 44 years along the Yangtze in central China, and the worst in decades in northeastern China, affecting a total of 250 million people.
Government spokesman Zhao Qizheng on Tuesday raised the official flooding death toll from "more than 2,000" to "not expected to surpass 4,000."
Given China's population of 1.2 billion and the sheer scale of the flooding, "the figure of casualties was very, very small," Zhou said at a news conference.
He dismissed reports that up to 3,000 people were washed away after a dike burst in central Hubei province's Jiayu county, saying instead that 44 people were killed.
However, he added that most efforts were being expended in fighting the floods, so the assessments of deaths and damages were lagging.
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| A soldier helps an elderly flood victim | |
Flood season to continue into winter?
Zhou predicted that high flood levels on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River would persist for another 20 days -- as long as no more heavy rains fall. With good weather, China's floodwaters would likely take until the end of October to fully recede, he said.
However, "if typhoons come late this year and... have a major impact on the climate in southeastern and northeastern regions, the flood season could extend into December," Zhou said.
Such a scenario would deepen the misery in Heilongjiang province, where more than 500,000 people were living without shelter following evacuations, said provincial Vice Governor Ma Shujie.
Cotton tents issued to flood victims would be a poor match for the virtually Siberian winters in Heilongjiang, China's northernmost province.
"Given the specific situation in our province, we will also dig semi-underground dwellings," Ma said.
Poor land-use contributed to floods
Officials acknowledged humans were partially to blame for the nation's worst floods since 1954.
"Of course there have been man-made irrational production activities, such as the filling in of lakes and rivers, which has reduced their ability to regulate the floodwaters," Zhou said.
He cited deforestation, the building of roads and the digging of mines as significant contributors to soil erosion that has silted up river beds, raising water levels.
State Council spokesman Zhao Qizheng said Beijing had ordered the reforestation of areas once thick with trees, and was demanding that lakes converted into farmland be restored to their original sizes.
"We have asked a lot from nature, and now we are returning what we have taken," Zhao said.
