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CNN Live Today

Almost One Million Workers Try to Stem Flooding in China

Aired August 23, 2002 - 11:18   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Clear blue skies lended (ph) to a sense of false security today in water-logged southeastern China. The flood-swollen Dongting Lake isn't expected to hit its peak until late in the weekend. The massive lake is fed by rivers that are filled to the brim by weeks of heavy rain. The situation worsened when tropical storm Vongfong swept through. Dongting Lake, which is the size of a small European country was shored up with new levees back in 1998, but if those levees break, millions of people could be at risk.
Our Beijing bureau chief, Jamie FlorCruz joins us by phone from the flood zone -- Jaime, hello.

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Daryn. Yes, I am reporting from Yuayang (ph), a city of about 500,000. This city sits right next to the Dongting Lake, which is China's second-largest inland lake. It is just about the size of Luxembourg. And it is eerily quiet right now here, it is about 11:00 p.m., and yes, people are bracing up for the worst because floodwaters have pushed the Dongting Lake some six feet above its flood warning mark.

Now the good news is the weather has been clear and dry the past few days, and emergency workers are hoping that this will give them the chance -- enough chance to reinforce the levees and dikes before this massive crest pass (ph) the lake in the next day or two -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jaime, some of the numbers I was looking on this just kind of blow my mind. One, the size of this lake -- I think it is bigger than anything we can imagine here in the U.S., but also emergency workers. I saw one statistic, 800,000 emergency workers?

FLORCRUZ: That is correct. Close to a million emergency workers, composed of soldiers, workers, and volunteers. Some 100,000 more militiamen are on standby to help in beefing up these reservoirs and embankments and hoping that they will hold off this pressure that will come from the crest of flood.

KAGAN: And might this be a case of too little too late? Is there a reason they are having to do it in an emergency situation? Are there some who think that this kind of work should have been done earlier, or is this just way too much rain that nobody expected?

FLORCRUZ: I think that they have done quite a lot of work, especially since 1998 when China experienced the worst flooding in 50 years. And this place also was inundated at that time. Now, the officials here say that they had reinforced or even heightened a lot of the levees and dikes after that, but the rain the past 12 days has just poured and poured and saturated the province. A lot of the rivers are swollen, and they all meet in this Dongting Lake, and that is why the pressure -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jamie FlorCruz, we wish you dry skies, and please be safe out there as you cover the story for us.

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