Flood crest on Weihe River enters Yellow River
( 2003-09-04 10:01) (Xinhua)
The flood crest on the Weihe
River passed through Weinan city in northwest China's Shaanxi province on
Wednesday morning and converged into the Yellow River.
The water level in the Weihe River dropped significantly after it passed,
said the local flood control office.
The water flow in the river was around 2,370 cubic meters per second, a
considerable fall from the 3,520 cubic meters per second recorded by the
hydrology station on the river at the peak.
However, relief teams and troops are still stationed on the embankments in
case of more breaches as more rainfall was forecastin most of the province in
coming days.
Breaches were reported in five places along the embankments of the Weihe
River's tributaries from last Sunday to Monday, and over 100,000 residents were
evacuated.
Continuous rain has caused severe flooding in over 50 rivers in Shaanxi
province since Aug. 24, affecting more than one million people and nearly 46,700
hectares of cropland. It caused direct economic losses of some two billion yuan
(241 million US dollars),said the provincial flood control department.
In Weinan city alone, more than 20,000 hectares of low-lying land have been
flooded, causing over 300 million yuan (36.15 million US dollars) in direct
economic losses.
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