China Earthquake: 80,000 Being Evacuated From Under Dam

Swollen lake tops China’s quake relief agenda, draining, evacuation side by side

www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-28 00:12:30 Print

MIANYANG, Sichuan Province, May 27 (Xinhua) — A swollen “quakelake” in one of the worst hit areas in China’s devastating earthquake has topped the country’s agenda of relief work.

In a phone call on Monday night, Chinese President Hu Jintao told Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who were in southwestern Sichuan province to oversee the quake relief work, that the relief task force must make sure no serious problems occur in the emergencies.

“We must put people first and the priority is to protect their lives,” he said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing on Tuesday the relief headquarters will evacuate residents from the area downstream of the lake and at the same time, try to drain the water. “We must well prepare and do the two parts of work side by side.”

The lake, at Tangjiashan of Beichuan County in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, was formed by landslides that blocked the Jianjiang River after the May 12 quake.

It was holding 130 million cubic meters of water, said Liu Ning, Ministry of Water Resources chief engineer, who is at Tangjiashan to oversee the diversion work.

Its water level was 727.09 meters on Tuesday, only 24.21 meters below the lowest part of the barrier, according to Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters.

Hui flew to the lake on Tuesday morning to check the situation on ground. When he returned to Mianyang, he called a meeting to discuss plans to defuse the danger imposed by the quake lake.

“The Tangjiashan quake lake should be our most urgent task. It is threatening millions of lives in the area downstream and any negligence will cause new disasters to people who have already suffered the quake,” he told the meeting.

The diversion work has been on the track, he said, “We will well prepare for the worst situation, taking account of any possible difficulties in draining the lake and evacuating the people”.

So far, more than 70,000 people in Mianyang City have been relocated.

In total, 158,000 people from 169 communities in 33 townships of Mianyang will have to move from their homes if one third of the lake volume bursts its banks, according to an emergency plan drawn up for the contingency.

Hui asked the headquarters to perfect the contingency plans, check every detail and push ahead the work in an orderly fashion.

He stressed enhanced monitoring of the lake’s situation.

As of Tuesday noon, 26 sets of machines, five tons of fuel and 157 workers had been airlifted to the lakeside while about 1,200 soldiers arrived on foot carrying ten tons of equipment and explosives.

The lake is inaccessible by road and can only be reached by foot or air.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/28/content_8265651.htm

THE LASTEST IS... 158,000 EVACUATED DOWN STREAM AND OVER 1,000 SOLDIERS ARE IN THE BLOCKED AREA NOW WORKING TO UNBLOCK IT SLOWLY. (It was 6 hour hike for the soldiers)

Photo taken on May 22, 2008 shows an airscape of the quake lakes formed after the massive May 12 earthquake in Beichuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province. According to a preliminary analysis, a total of 34 quake lakes have been found in Sichuan, eight of which contain more than 300 million cubic meters of water each.(Xinhua Photo)

An airscape taken on May 22, 2008 shows some residential houses being soaked by the river in Yuli Village, Beichuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province.(Xinhua Photo)

An airscape taken on May 22, 2008 shows a power station being soaked by water due to the ascending water level of the Kuzhu dam in Beichuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province.(Xinhua Photo)

Photo taken on May 22, 2008 shows an airscape of a village submerged by the lakes formed after the massive May 12 earthquake in Xuanping Village, Beichuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province.(Xinhua Photo)

An airscape shows Beichuan County in Mianyang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 27, 2008. Mianyang City on May 21 exerted a special control of the county seat of Beichuan, banning people and vehicles from entering the town to avoid any possible landslide and mudslide, and to protect the post-quake scene in the town. (Xinhua/Li Dadong)

Yes, you are right, what I said the dam is stable is not a responsible judgment. According to some seepage stability analysis of landslide dam, there wouldn’t be any seepage problem when the lake stage of landslide dame is under limiting stage. But when lake stage is higher than limiting lake stage, water must be drained by spillway.
Now, it’s impossible to measure the limiting lake stage of those dams. It’s also unknown that how high of the water stage those dams could resist.

It is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode for downstream residents.

More people being evacuated from swollen lake area in southwest China

CHENGDU, May 27 (Xinhua) — Chinese emergency workers are aiming to evacuate another 80,000 people from the area downstream of a swelling earthquake-induced lake by midnight on Tuesday.

Altogether 158,000 people will have to move from their homes if Tangjiashan Lake bursts its banks. So far, more than 100,000 people in Mianyang City have been relocated.

Two other plans require the relocation of 1.2 million people if half of the lake volume is released, or 1.3 million if the barrier of the quake lake fully opens.

On Tuesday, at least 600 engineers and soldiers were working around the clock to dig a sluice for the blockage with the aid of 29 excavators and bulldozers.

Several Mig-26 helicopters airlifted more machinery to the quake lake. To speed up the project, the helicopters took off under a visibility of 600 meters when the required visibility was 5,000 meters, sources said.

At 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, rescuers blasted several tree trunks mixed in the blockage. By that day, at least 20,000 cubic meters of debris had been removed.

Zhu Guoliang, an armed police brigadier, said “the soldiers working in Tangjiashan have at least three years experience in this kind of project, and they are seizing every minute to remove the rocks”.

He said the sluice would be ready in about three to five days. At least 50,000 cubic meters of debris would have to be removed to build the diversion channel on the blockage body. Rescuers, however, were aiming to remove 100,000 cubic meters of debris if the weather allowed.

The lake is some 3.2 kilometers away from the seat of Beichuan County, the area worst hit in the devastating quake on May 12. It was formed by landslides that blocked a river known as the Jianjiang after the quake, according to Mianyang quake relief headquarters.

People from 169 communities in 33 townships of Mianyang are threatened by the quake lake.

The evacuation was necessary because the water level in the quake lake has continued to rise and the diversion channel won’t be in place until June 5, experts with Mianyang quake relief headquarters said on Tuesday.

Tangjiashan, the biggest of 35 lakes formed in the quake, is inaccessible by road and can only be reached by foot or air.

It holds about 130 million cubic meters of water, said Liu Ning, the Ministry of Water Resources chief engineer, who is at Tangjiashan to oversee the diversion work. Its water level was 727.02 meters on Tuesday, up 1.82 meters from Monday and only about 25 meters below the lowest part of the barrier.

The Ministry of Water Resources said on Tuesday that a total of2,385 reservoirs were damaged after the tremors, and 69 of them may collapse.

The ministry has sent 18 work teams to help address the risks at the reservoirs, and danger at 496 reservoirs have been defused.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/27/content_8263743.htm

bttt

4.9 nearly at the north pole. Unusual.

Thanks for the ping, Travis, and thank you stlnative for the updates. I do hope they manage to control them and prevent further death and destruction.

Survivors Rescued 16 Days After Quake

Forty half-starved earthquake survivors have been rescued from a remote area in southwestern China 16 days after the disaster, state media has reported.

They were flown out by helicopter from the quake-shattered village of Yangjiagou in Sichuan province, the West China Metropolitan Daily said.

~SNIP~

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1317472,00.html

Trapped chemicals add to China’s quake lake fears

DUJIANGYAN, China, May 29 (Reuters) - Five thousand tonnes of dangerous chemicals is adding to the mix of threats downstream from one of China’s “quake lakes” in danger of bursting their banks, a newspaper said on Thursday.

About 5,000 tonnes of chemicals, including sulphuric and hydrochloric acid, were trapped downstream from the Tangjiashan lake and had to be moved to safe ground, the Beijing News said, citing local environmental authorities.

~SNIP~ More at link

http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSPEK216618

bttt