Beijing, Oct 04: Over 86,000 people in east China's Shandong province are threatened by surging floodwaters of the Yellow River which have breached several inner dikes in neighbouring Henan province, an official report said today. Of all the people under siege, only 5,593 have been transferred, mostly the elderly, sick and handicapped and children, the official Xinhua news agency reported from Jinan, the provincial capital. Those who have relatives to turn to, have been moved to nearby counties by boats and the remaining are staying on higher grounds or terraces, and even on rooftops, it said. The dysfunctional inner dikes of the Yellow River along the Lankao county section in central China's Henan province have been slitted by several breaches. Three slits along the river, one 200 meters long and two others 100 meters long, are gushing and spurting out water to inundate plain areas in western Shandong, endangering the life of over 86,000 locals in 127 villages and submerging 10,800 hectares of cropland, deputy head of Dongming county, Liu Xueshan said.
As the only three roads to outside have been cut off by the surging floodwater, the affected areas are facing the increasing difficulty in evacuating most of local residents, an official from the disaster mitigation and relief office of civil affairs bureau said.
According to latest reports, the floodwater has risen as high as the level of the Yellow River and the bottom of the water in the flooded plain reached up to 3.5 meters.
Bureau Report