Widespread flooding in regions of northeast China

Widespread flooding caused by torrential rains inundated regions of northeast China on 28-29 July 2010. Reports indicate that the rising flood waters have severely disrupted transportation and cut off communities in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia provinces. In Jilin City, approximately 30,000 residents in the town of Kouqian became trapped after two nearby rivers topped their banks and engulfed the area. Reports indicate that thousands of barrels of flammable chemicals were washed away from storage warehouses in the city by flooding along the Songhua River. Water quality is being monitored closely as the waterway supplies drinking water to the city. The river almost completely surrounds the downtown area of Jilin City, and authorities warned that more thunderstorms could bring persistent flooding in the next few days. More than 250,000 residents in central Jilin province have been evacuated because of the flooding. Meanwhile in central Hubei province, environmental managers at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River were reportedly scrambling to relieve the strain on the reservoir spillway and artificial lake upstream. Flooding has reportedly tested the strength of the dam management system, and government officials have warned communities downstream from Three Gorges that they could see intense flooding because the dam’s spill gates may release much more water on the Yangtze. Major metropolitan areas located downstream on the river include Wuhan, Nanjing and the city of Shanghai, which sits at the mouth of the Yangtze at the East China Sea. Major rains have caused devastating floods throughout central and eastern China in 2010. Seasonal storms began to sweep through the country in May and have continued through June and July. Emergency management officials in China estimate that so far thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced by the natural disaster. At least four tropical storm systems formed during the 2010 Pacific typhoon season have made landfall in China, worsening the mounting crisis. Meteorologists expect the destructive seasonal storms to remain intense until the beginning of September