PureInsight | August 22, 2007
[PureInsight.org] This year,
around July 20, in China, heavy storms with lightning, thunder, and
strong winds happened in many cities and provinces in Mainland China.
Fearsome water swept away houses and flooded farmland. Cities, towns
and villages became seas. On this same day eight years ago, Jiang, the
former head of the Communist Party of China started the persecution
against Falun Gong practitioners who cultivate Truth, Compassion and
Forbearance. Ever since then, almost every year around this time, there
are either floods or high temperatures in Mainland China. This abnormal
weather has become more and more severe and common and it is becoming
especially obvious this year. Collected here is some information from
the official media in China.
Big flood on the Huai River
Between eight o'clock on July 18th and eight o'clock on July 20th,
heavy rain and storms fell in Xi Ping prefecture, Zhu Ma Tian, Henan
Province and the upper reaches of the Huai River with an average
precipitation above 120 mm. Among the affected areas, Tan Dian Zhan had
the heaviest rainfall at 162.7 mm. The heavy rain caused the water to
be 0.78 to 1.87 meter above the warning level at Yang Jia Zhan, Gui Li
Zhan in the prefecture and caused a drastic increase in the water level
of the Huai River.
This year, the Huai River area has suffered the biggest flooding ever
1953. Due to the prolonged immersion in water, the dam on the Huai
River in the Hua Jia Hu area has repeatedly collapsed. It had large
breaches four times since July 18, with the longest breach being 200
meters and shortest one, 35 meters. This segment of the dam was
protecting ten thousand Mu
(Chinese acre) of crop fields, a large coal mine and a large power
plant, and now the collapsed old dam has basically lost its function of
blocking water. According to he report, this is the most severe
situation that has happened on the An Hui segment of the Huai River
since it entered the period of flood danger this year.
In addition, according to statistics from the Department of Civil
Affairs and the water conservancy agency, by 11 o'clock on July 22,
victims of the disaster in An Hui Province had reached more than 16
million, over 1400000 acres of agricultural crops had suffered from the
flood, and infrastructure such as the irrigation system, transportation
system, electricity and communication systems have been damaged
severely. Twenty-nine thousand water conservancies were damaged. The
total direct loss is 10.4 billion Yuan RMB with a loss of 6.16 billion Yuan RMB in agriculture and 1.3 billion Yuan RMB in water conservancy. The direct loss in Huai River is 8.04 billion Yuan RMB.
Heavy storm in Chuan and Yu regions
According to the weather center of Chongqing city, based on analysis of
historical records of total precipitation and highest daily
precipitation, the precipitation during the flood period in west
Chongqing is large and the storm intensity is high this year. This is a
typical extreme weather phenomenon, which is a once-in-a-hundred-years
occurrence during this same time period in the west Yu region.
The strong storm in Chongqing has attracted attention from all over the
country. By July 19, the storms and flood disasters have caused the
suffering of more than 6,430,000 people, the death of 42 people and the
disappearance of 12 people. The direct financial loss reached 2.659
billion Yuan RMB. Also,
Chongqing city suffered a heavy attack by a once-in-a-hundred-years
storm. Many people who have lived in Chongqing for a long time couldn't
understand the weather and among the various comments, once again the
"theory of the three gorges" came up.
On the evening of July 20, Wu Xi of Chongqing suffered the attack of a
heavy storm. Up to July 21, 25 out of the 30 towns and villages in the
county were affected by the disaster and the population of victims
reached 280,000. The heavy rain continued from 8 o'clock on the 18th till the morning of the 21st
that resulted in torrential flooding, severe mud rock flow, destruction
of roads and houses, and interruption of interstate and inner state
roads in many places. More than 1000 village roads were totally
blocked. Up to noontime of the 21st, more than 8000 acres of
crops were flooded, over 20 kilometers of dam at 324 places and 18
kilometers of weir at 127 places were destroyed. Three hundred seventy
eight houses of 125 families collapsed and 4740 people of 948 families
were forced out of their homes.
Flood disasters in Shandong, Yunnan and Hami, Xinjiang
On July 18th, Shandong Province suffered the first strong
rain after entering the rainy season that caused serious casualties
among people and property. In fifteen counties of 8 cities, 417,000
people suffered from the disaster with 32 deaths, 10 people missing,
2676 families flooded, 112,300 people forced out of their homes, 850
houses collapsed, and more than 1,500 houses damaged. The direct
financial loss exceeded 1.5 billion Yuan RMB.
From July 18 to 21st, Yunnan province had serious flooding,
mud slides and mud rock flows. Hognhe, Zhaotong,, Lincang, Dehong and
Puer area suffered severe damage. Up to the report date, 386.400 people
suffered from the disaster with 59 deaths, 8 people missing, 6537
people forced out of their homes, 4016 houses collapsed, 8370 houses
damaged, 15560 acres of crop fields damaged, with1780 acres reduced to
a zero harvest. The direct financial loss is 0.132 billion Yuan RMB.
On July 16th, continuous heavy rain resulted in mountain
floods in the Hami area that suffered a once-in-a-hundred-years flood
disaster. Electricity and transportation were interrupted, more than
90,000 people suffered from the disaster, and the direct financial loss
is 0.2 billion Yuan RMB.
Flood and drought attack together in Hunan
This year during the rainy season, the average precipitation in Hunan
was about 29% less than earlier years. In the past 30 days, more than
half of the flood watching stations didn't get noticeable rain for 15
days. Up to July 22nd, most reaches of the Xiang river, the
upper reaches of the Zi river, the Yuan river and its vicinity, a total
area of approximately 100,000 square kilometers suffered drought of
various severities, while Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan had the most
serious drought. Ten cities and one thousand two hundred and twenty
towns in Hunan province suffered drought and over 470,000 people and
210,000 livestock had water shortage due to the drought. Four hundred
one reservoirs and 120,000 ponds dried up, and over 950 streams dried
up. From 24th to 25th, there were strong storm
rains in Hunan. In its northwest and part of the northern area, there
were heavy storms. There were local flood warnings.
High temperatures in Guangdong continue
From July 8 to 23rd, high temperatures were recorded in Guangdong for 16 days, with hot weather in surrounding areas. Since July 8th,
yellow and orange warnings for high temperature have been published one
hundred and fifteen times. Seventy six counties and cities had a
temperature of over 35 degrees C and 16 counties and cities had a
temperature over 37 degrees C. Since July 1, the average rain
precipitation in Guangdong province has been only 61 mm, which is 70%
less than previous years.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/7/25/44976.html
