Chinese Officials Battle To Evacuate 80,000 Affected by Unstable Dam
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIJING — Chinese officials battled last night to complete the evacuation of 80,000 Chinese below a natural dam formed by landslides in the Sichuan earthquake.
The blockage, on the Jian river above the devastated town of Beichuan, is one of many that formed when landslides were triggered by the quake two weeks ago.
Almost 2,000 soldiers, armed with dynamite and using a mechanical digger landed by helicopter, hope to have dug a tunnel through the dam to release some of the water by next month and so ease the pressure.
But in a measure of their concern that this might not be quick enough, the authorities have drawn up contingency plans to move more than 1 million people further downstream if there is a likelihood of the dam bursting.
The new reservoir, called Mount Tangjia Lake, is one of 34 so-called “barrier lakes” created by landslides. In addition, the authorities said at least 69 man-made dams were in serious danger of bursting.
The lake’s water level is rising by more than 3 feet a day and now contains 34 billion gallons.
