Typhoon Chanthu killed three people before weakening into a tropical storm yesterday after making landfall in southern China’s Guangdong Province.
Winds of up to 126kph knocked over a wall in Guangdong’s Wuchuan City, killing two people, Xinhua news agency reported.
Heavy flooding swept away a 50-year-old man in a village in Hong Kong late on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the country braced yesterday for a potential new deluge on the Yangtze River downstream from the huge Three Gorges Dam as its reservoir’s level hit a high for the year.
Lowered expectations
The warnings came as officials sought to dampen expectations that the dam could completely tame the swelling river amid the worst flooding in a decade, which has left more than 1,000 people dead or missing.
The Three Gorges reservoir’s water level reached its highest point in this year’s floods, the water resources ministry said, adding it hit the dam’s 158.8m mark yesterday.
State press reports put its maximum at 175m.
‘CRITICAL JUNCTURE’
Huge amounts of water continued to thunder out of its massive spill-gates and the government of Jiangxi Province said the hard-hit eastern province downstream was at a “critical juncture” in flood control.
It ordered authorities to redouble flood prevention work along dozens of lakes and rivers already swollen by weeks of heavy rains.
Vice Water Resources Minister Liu Ning (劉寧) this week called the Three Gorges Dam — the world’s largest hydroelectric project — a “pillar” against new floods, but other officials began to emphasize its limits.
“The Three Gorges Dam is not a panacea,” Wei Shanzhong (魏山忠), deputy director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, was quoted yesterday by state media as saying.
Twelve years ago, record rains swelled the Yangtze River and many tributaries, causing floods that killed at least 4,150 people and forced the evacuation of 18 million.
This year, heavy rain initially caused widespread flooding in eastern and southern China, roughly centered on the Yangtze.
However, the rains recently shifted to the river’s upper reaches, threatening a new flood crest downstream.
Heavy rains upstream had raised the amount of water pouring into the Yangtze to 70,000m³ per second, the government has said — 10,000m³ more than the peak seen in the 1998 floods.
‘Super-alert’
The output at the dam’s spill-gates has risen sharply from 25,000m³ per second in recent weeks to 40,000m³.
The Hubei provincial government said several flood-hit areas had been put on “super-alert” in anticipation of increased water flow.
Seven years ago, Chinese officials boasted that the Three Gorges Dam could withstand floods so severe that they come only once every 10,000 years.
Since the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in 2006, confidence in its flood capacity has diminished as officials continue to backpedal on their claims each year. In 2007, officials said the dam could withstand the worst flood in 1,000 years.
Then on Tuesday, Three Gorges Corp chairman Cao Guangjing (曹廣晶) told China Daily he can “absolutely guarantee” that the dam can withstand the worst flood in 100 years.
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