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Water levels at China's Three Gorges near maximum after flooding rains
Reuters ^ | 21 Aug 2020 | David Stanway

Posted on 08/21/2020 7:36:21 AM PDT by BeauBo

Water levels at China’s giant Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river are inching closer to their maximum after torrential rains raised inflows to a record high, official data showed on Friday.

With 75,000 cubic metres per second of water flowing in from the Yangtze river on Thursday, the reservoir’s depths reached 165.6 metres by Friday morning, up more than 2 metres overnight and almost 20 metres higher than the official warning level.

The maximum designed depth of China’s largest reservoir is 175 metres.

Authorities raised the discharge volume to a record 48,800 cubic metres per second on Thursday to try to lower water levels, and they might have to increase it again to avoid the possibility of a dangerous overflow.

“They will do everything they can to prevent the dam from overtopping,” said Desiree Tullos, a professor at Oregon State University who studies the Three Gorges project.

“An overtopping dam is a worst-case scenario because it produces significant damage... and can lead to the entire thing collapsing.”

Rainfall in the Yangtze basin has been well over double the seasonal average this year.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; dam; flood; monsoon; threegorges
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To: Tunehead54
NOBODY wants to see the Three Gorges fail.

C'mon, you know we are all here waiting to see what would be a highlight of this disaster movie that is 2020.


61 posted on 08/21/2020 9:29:24 AM PDT by CtBigPat (2020 is becoming everything 2012 aspired to be.)
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To: stuck_in_new_orleans

“Just let us know when it breaks.”

Complete failure is unlikely (but would perhaps be the worst disaster in recorded history, if it did happen).

In the meantime, the flooding that has been happening, is a huge disaster by normal standards. It impacts global agricultural demand and prices, and threatens the supply chain for lots of critical supplies, like PPE and pharmaceuticals.

So there is interest just in the flooding itself.

But for preppers, the worst case scenario is of interest, because the effects of a sudden complete failure of the Three Gorges Dam would be Global.

Geostrategically, the effects on China would be akin to a medium nuclear weapons exchange.


62 posted on 08/21/2020 9:31:59 AM PDT by BeauBo
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Allegedly Israel’s defense plans against Iran include a Doomsday Scenario where they would use EMP to fry their electric grid and then blow up all of their dams. Once the Ayatollahs have to worry about how to keep 80 million people fed they’ll have little time for global mischief.

Same thing applies.


63 posted on 08/21/2020 9:37:23 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: CtBigPat
NOBODY wants to see the Three Gorges fail.

I would certainly not want to see the long-suffering people of China undergo such a catastrophe. However, I've been praying daily for God to rid the planet of that evil regime. And how He chooses to go about it is His call.


64 posted on 08/21/2020 9:39:23 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: null and void

You’re right of course!

Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, S Korea, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, even the Philippines are not happy with China.

Dems and Xi worship the same ‘god’ anyways.


65 posted on 08/21/2020 9:43:45 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Like Enoch, Noah, & Lot, the True Church will soon be removed & then destruction comes forth.)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

China is able to feed its population. It is the world’s leading producer of wheat, rice, soybeans, pork, fish, vegetables and a lot of other stuff. Calories are not a problem. The problem is upgrading the diet of the Chinese middle and working classes to provide much higher levels of high quality animal proteins. The Chinese like to eat meat as much as we do, and with China’s dramatic economic progress in recent decades, a billion-plus Chinese have gotten the idea that their diet should continue to improve. They want more meat and dairy products, which are grain intensive to produce. That’s what drives Chinese import demand. Austerity would mean backing Chinese consumers down to much lower levels of meat consumption. In a short term emergency, that would be politically sustainable. Long term, it would make a lot of people angry. That would be dangerous for a regime whose legitimacy rests on improving the standard of living.


66 posted on 08/21/2020 9:59:38 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: BeauBo; All

More info...

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-53860309


67 posted on 08/21/2020 10:25:18 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Like Enoch, Noah, & Lot, the True Church will soon be removed & then destruction comes forth.)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

Very similar situation.

They have been building freezer warehouses to store food at their ports like crazy. Even buying up meat processing plants here in America where 100% of the product gets shipped back home.


68 posted on 08/21/2020 10:27:13 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Like Enoch, Noah, & Lot, the True Church will soon be removed & then destruction comes forth.)
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To: sphinx
The problem is upgrading the diet of the Chinese middle and working classes to provide much higher levels of high quality animal proteins. The Chinese like to eat meat as much as we do, and with China’s dramatic economic progress in recent decades, a billion-plus Chinese have gotten the idea that their diet should continue to improve

so....stepping up from Choice bat to Prime bat?


69 posted on 08/21/2020 10:37:39 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: BeauBo

Maybe they’ll get lucky


70 posted on 08/21/2020 10:38:45 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirs)
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To: BeauBo

The Chernobyl disaster was a prelude to the collapse of hard core communist rule in the former USSR. That event I think shook the Soviets more than we realized at the time. Not sure this flooding would be similar but there is the idea that totalitarian regimes have everything under their control and obvious disasters call into question the legitimacy of their rule.


71 posted on 08/21/2020 10:40:42 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Normally, you’re right on the money. However, Xi’s already got locusts too. Not a joke.

He’s even had hail in June and July. He’s got India issues, Australia issues. He’s got African countries not paying their ridiculous port debts.

He’s got silos of grain that has rotted and isn’t fit to feed pigs.

He’s got issues.


72 posted on 08/21/2020 10:48:07 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: Buckeye McFrog

I once met a young woman from China who grew up in the Mao era. She remembers getting meat twice a year. A whole egg all for oneself was a big birthday present. The diet was mostly rice and vegetables with a little fish thrown in from time to time. And repeat. Moving to meat once a week is a revolutionary change. Then twice a week. Then three times a week. China can grow enough grain to feed its people. It can’t grow enough grain to put meat, milk and eggs on people’s plates whenever they want them.


73 posted on 08/21/2020 12:02:28 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: null and void

I do know God is in charge, expect the unexpected. I also do know China has been persecuting Christians at an historic rate, imprisoning and re- educating Chinese Muslims, sponsoring abortion that makes our murdering of babies look like pocket change, and much much more. Only God knows when their “ warning” ( and ours) will occur.


74 posted on 08/21/2020 12:09:29 PM PDT by delta7
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To: delta7
I do know God is in charge

As an agnostic, I envy you.

75 posted on 08/21/2020 12:14:50 PM PDT by null and void (Forward by God! Forward we lurch into the dim horizon! We all go together where we all go alone!)
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To: null and void

Wow!


76 posted on 08/21/2020 1:02:27 PM PDT by miserare ( Respect for life--life of all kinds-- is the first principle of civilization.~~A. Schweitzer.)
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To: sphinx

No wonder they are so thin!


77 posted on 08/21/2020 1:07:53 PM PDT by miserare ( Respect for life--life of all kinds-- is the first principle of civilization.~~A. Schweitzer.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

The outflow has exceeded safety measures for a month. Numerous cities have been flooded, many without notification. Untold people have died. This is already a catastrophe of monumental proportions.
You will not learn about this is the MSM. It does not fit their orange man bad narrative.


78 posted on 08/21/2020 1:09:33 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (A deep and terrible ignorance born of abject corruption is required to hate our president.)
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To: BeauBo
"Water levels at China's Three Gorges near maximum after flooding rains"

Licking their lips, Formosa, India, and Japan accelerate their development of newer, more devastating dam-busting bombs and missiles...

79 posted on 08/21/2020 1:21:50 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: null and void

“...dam, just resting on dirt”

I have been wondering about this and haven’t seen it anywhere. Do you know it for a fact? There is a large difference between the two. A dirt base can be undermined by seepage. The pictures I have seen of the grading don’t look good.


80 posted on 08/21/2020 2:09:08 PM PDT by Dennis M.
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