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CNN Live At Daybreak

Chinese Officials Declare Flood Emergency

Aired August 21, 2002 - 06:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A tropical storm has prompted officials to declare a flood emergency in southern China's Hunan province. The swollen rivers and lakes are now threatening to engulf some 10 million people.
CNN's Jaime FlorCruz joins us now via telephone from Beijing with an update.

Jaime -- what's going on there?

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (AUDIO GAP) grim for the 10 million Hunanese, who live near the Dongting Lake, which is China's second largest inland lake. They face the threat of devastating floods, as continuous rain in the past few days have swollen its water level above flood stage.

Thousands of soldiers and workers are racing against time, piling sandbags to reinforce the levies and dikes. These are desperate measures taken after the officials in the province declared a state of emergency.

COSTELLO: You know, it's just mind-boggling to think that 10 million people may be affected by this.

FLORCRUZ: Indeed. Well, China being so big, a country of 1.2 billion, and so vast, you know, it has been raining in the north a couple of weeks ago, and now, it's the south's turn. And flooding in China is quite a common occurrence all these years. In fact, most of the rivers here are also known as "rivers of death" or "sorrow of China." And so, it's quite common that this flooding occurs, especially during the monsoon season, which is under way.

COSTELLO: So if you evacuate that many people, where do they go?

FLORCRUZ: Well, they try to go to higher places or other provinces. The good thing here is there is a top-down kind of organization, so that it's easier for them to mobilize tens of thousands of people.

A lot of it is reliant on, for example, the PLA, the Chinese army, which is very organized, and it's easy to mobilize. Local officials have also been bracing up for this disaster the past several weeks, because there have been forecasts of more rain and flooding.

COSTELLO: All right, Jaime FlorCruz, thanks for updating us on the terrible flooding in China.

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