Massive flood arrives at China's Three Gorges reservoir

WUHAN/HEFEI - The Three Gorges reservoir in Central China's Hubei province has seen the second flood along the Yangtze River in 2020, the largest one arriving at the reservoir so far this year.

At 8 am on Saturday, the inbound flow of water reached 61,000 cubic meters per second while the outbound flow was 33,000 cubic meters per second, with 45 percent of floodwater withheld in the reservoir, according to the China Three Gorges Corporation.

Three lower floodgates of the Three Gorges Dam opened to discharge the floodwater on Saturday morning, with various parameters of the dam at safety levels.

After withholding rounds of floodwaters, the water level of the reservoir has reached 160.17 meters, more than 15 meters higher than the flood limit level.

Floods have also affected many provinces along the Yangtze River.

East China's Anhui province activated a Level I emergency response for flood control at 6:00 pm Saturday, the highest in a four-tier emergency response system, due to the grim flood situation.

At present, both the main stream of the Yangtze River in Anhui and the Wangjiaba hydrologic station of the Huaihe River have seen water exceeding warning levels.

Anhui is forecast to see two more rounds of heavy rains in the coming days.

As of 11 am on Friday, heavy rain had affected 11 cities and more than 3 million people in the province.