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CNN Live At Daybreak

Fresh Rains Return to Flood-Ravaged China

Aired August 26, 2002 - 06:35   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Still overseas, the rain-swollen Dongting Lake in China has reached its crest, but that does not mean the flooding crisis is over. Officials are keeping a close watch on the lake as the rains return.
CNN's Jaime FlorCruz has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN'S BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): For the workers and dependents of Yueyang's Timber Company, it is not quite business as usual. They live in this apartment complex on the shores of the Dongting Lake, China's second biggest body of fresh water.

(on camera): Flood crests have swollen the lake to dangerous levels, and for residents who live right on the shore, the dikes are not high enough to stop the floods.

(voice-over): Flooding around the lake has disrupted lives and businesses in this city of five million people. Tens of thousands have been deployed to work around the clock, reinforcing the defenses and checking the dikes for any breaches.

Flooding has already destroyed houses, roads and power lines, at least 90,000 hectares, or 350 square miles, of crop land have been washed out.

FRANCIS HURTUBISE, INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS: We just have to look around us, all the lands that have been flooded, all those people who have lost their crops, they won't have anything to have to eat for the winter.

FLORCRUZ: This is what is left of Yueyang Village, intentionally flooded after the local dike was opened to ease pressure on the main banks holding Dongting Lake.

Two thousand villages were forced to evacuate their homes with a few essential belongings. The village lost more than 66 hectares, or 27 acres, of rice fields and several fish farms.

LOU XIAOZHOU, VILLAGE CHIEF (through translator): I lost over two acres of rice field and four fish ponds. Our village will lose the equivalent of $50,000.

FLORCRUZ: Villagers expect the local government to compensate them for their losses, but they will need more. HURTUBISE: The No. 1 is food, as I said, because they have lost their crops, their harvest. No 2 would be clothing, it would be blankets. And No. 3, of course, to have a roof on top of their head in order to survive the coming winter.

FLORCRUZ: Jaime FlorCruz, CNN, Yueyang, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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