Floods Afflict Huge Area of China

Floods plagued huge sections of China on Sunday, with one northern river stranding 146,000 people as it burst its banks. In the south, 2 million Chinese rescue workers prepared to battle a new surge of flood waters on the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze flood crest--the sixth so far in a summer that has seen the river’s heaviest flooding in 44 years--threatened waterlogged dikes that protect cities and farmland downstream. More than 2,000 Chinese have been killed in this flood season, and millions have been left homeless.

In Hubei, a hard-hit central province, more than 2 million army troops and civilian volunteers were getting ready for the new Yangtze surge, the Wenhui Daily reported Sunday.

The Yangtze could surpass a record 148 1/2 feet in the Hubei city of Shashi, state television reported. Officials earlier said they may be forced to dynamite dikes to steer water away from the Yangtze. The move aims to safeguard cities downstream by deliberately flooding an area south of Shashi.

Authorities in Inner Mongolia were trying to rescue 76,000 people trapped “in dangerous conditions” by the flooded Ulyji Muren River, the state-run New China News Agency reported. A further 70,000 people in the northern region already had been rescued, it said.