Free Republic

Flooding as a result of heavy rainfall in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces caused the Yangtze River to overflow in recent days, inundating cities in China’s western regions.The Yangtze’s water level in Chongqing city may exceed the safety level on Aug. 19, which means an embankment breach could happen at any time, according to state-run broadcaster CCTV, which cited officials.China’s cabinet-like State Council said at a press conference on Aug. 13 that rainfall in areas along the Yangtze and Huai rivers have reached their highest levels since 1961.A woman uses a bike to cross a flooded street after a sudden...

The flooding, which started to recede in late July, inflicted the worst natural disaster in a decade on a country still recovering from the pandemic. At least 158 people have died or gone missing and 4 million have evacuated their homes. But so far, it has not dealt a knockout blow to the economy. In fact, Li Yao, a fellow at the East Asia Institute at the National University of Singapore, estimates in preliminary research that the 2020 flood will shave 0.17% from China's 2020 GDP, far less damage than in previous crises. “It should not be hard for China...

Millions have been displaced in China due to recent flooding in the country. Now today China blasted a dam to relieve pressure from the floods. Today far-left Yahoo News reported: State broadcaster CCTV reported the dam on the Chuhe River in Anhui province was destroyed with explosives early Sunday morning, after which the water level was expected to drop by 70 centimeters (more than 2 feet).Blasting dams and embankments to discharge water was an extreme response employed during ChinaÂ’s worst floods in recent years in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and almost 3 million homes were destroyed....

At least 14 people were killed Saturday in southern China because of seasonal rains and flooding. Three floodgates of the Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangtze River were opened as the water level behind the massive dam rose more than 50 feet above flood level, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The dam was holding back about 45 percent of the water, Xinhua said, citing China Three Gorges Corp. Upstream, 11 people had been killed in Chongqing as of Saturday morning, China National Emergency Broadcasting said in an online report, citing the municipal emergency agency. More than 20,000 people...

BEIJING—Engorged with more heavy rains, China’s mighty Yangtze River is cresting again, bringing fears of further destruction, as the seasonal floods that already have left 141 people dead or missing have grown in force since last month.The heavy rains are putting renewed pressure on the massive Three Gorges Dam that straddles the river upstream of the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.The official Xinhua News Agency said the rate of flow in the reservoir behind the dam would hit a record for the year on Friday night, at 55,000 square meters (almost 600,000 square feet) per second.Rivers in the...

Damage from wide-spread flooding in China may have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Hubei province, which was badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak, has seen some of the worst flooding around the Yangtze. The Yangtze River region saw its second-highest day of rainfall in over 50 years, authorities said Monday as deadly flooding affected much of China. Some 28,000 homes have been damaged and 141 people have died or are missing since the floods began last month. Most of mainland China is affected, including vast swathes of western areas like Tibet and Xinjiang.