Flood Threatens Chinese Oil Field
The bulging Nen River pounded a gap in an embankment in northeastern China on Monday, breaching a defense for the country’s largest oil field and a city of 2.3 million people.
China’s northeastern regional military command sent 10,000 more soldiers to the area, doubling the number of troops already fighting floods there, the official New China News Agency reported.
The powerful river churned through an embankment that local people and soldiers had been struggling to repair.
Meanwhile, 1,500 oil workers and soldiers worked on a third and final line of defense.
The third dike was a “life-and-death defense” for the wells and the city of Daqing, Wang Yang, an army captain, told the China Daily.
To the south, in central China, the Yangtze River reached a record height of 149.2 feet Monday at the Hubei province city of Shashi.
This summer’s floods are the Yangtze River’s worst since 1954.
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