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CNN Live At Daybreak

Flood Waters Rise in China

Aired August 22, 2002 - 05:07   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to China and the potential for incredible destruction. Hundreds of thousands of people in Hunan Province are working to stop a potential disaster. The waters of Dongting Lake, more than 1,000 square miles in size, are threatening to pour over its banks.
Senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy joins us from Hong Kong with more -- good morning, Mike.

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Well, the scale of this potential disaster is really staggering. Dongting Lake in the southern province of Hunan, as you said, covers over 1,000 square miles. It's fed by the mighty Yangtze River. And due to the summer monsoon rains and the influence of a typhoon which came ashore in southern China last week, the waters of the Yangtze have been pouring into Dongting Lake, which is threatening to burst its banks.

Already, hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated. The authorities fear that if Lake Dongting does, indeed, burst its banks, that the city of Wuhan, with a population of seven million, which is at the confluence of the Yangtze and two other rivers, and the city of Changsha could be at risk.

There is an enormous emergency operation under way involving three quarters of a million people, civilians and soldiers, trying to strengthen dikes, to fill sand bags, to prevent the lake from reaching its banks. The flood crest coming down the Yangtze is not expected to peak until Sunday, so there are going to be some nervous times ahead in the next couple of days for the Chinese authorities and the many millions of people living in the area -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And, Mike, already 900 people have died because of this flooding?

CHINOY: That's right. The death toll is in the hundreds and it's not only China that's suffering now. Throughout Asia in the summer there have been catastrophic scenes because of the weather. In Nepal, 500 people have been killed and 250,000 made homeless because of floods caused by torrential monsoon rains. In India, thousands of people have been forced from their homes and hundreds are dead.

There have been flooding, too, in Bangladesh, in Cambodia and in the Philippines. And it's not only floods. In Indonesia, fires set by farmers trying to clear land have created a choking haze of pollution in the island of Borneo and that's causing some serious concern. And in Mongolia, there's a drought and forest fires have burned 30 percent of that country's forests. And to give you a sense of the kind of problems they have in fighting those fires, the firefighting capability in Mongolia, we are told 200 men on horseback and one Russian made helicopter -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Horseback and then just one -- unbelievable.

Mike Chinoy joining us live from China this morning.

We appreciate it.

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