China Completes Spillway from Quake Lake
Chinese soldiers and engineers dug a spillway from an earthquake-created lake that was threatening to burst its banks in the central county of Beichuan, state-run news agency Xinhua reported Sunday.
Meanwhile, a military helicopter carrying 10 people injured in the disastrous earthquake and four crew members crashed Saturday afternoon in Wenchuan County, state media reported. The helicopter encountered turbulence and fog before the crash. There was no word on injuries or fatalities, and a search and rescue operation was underway, Xinhua reported.
Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province is considered the epicenter of the magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck on May 12.
The diversion project, which included a 475-meter (517-yard) channel up to 10 meters (33 feet) wide, was completed at 10 p.m. (10 a.m. ET) Saturday, said Liu Ning, chief engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources and the project’s deputy director, Xinhua reported.
Tangjiashan Lake was created when a landslide caused by the earthquake dammed Jianjiang River.
By Saturday night, about 135,500 cubic meters of mud and rocks had been removed from the lake, and the plan to use explosives to blow away the blockage was abandoned because of the channel’s completion, Xinhua cited Liu as saying.
According to the plan, the lake — which has been rising about 1.6 meters daily and was seven meters from the top of its naturally-formed dam — would spill into its man-made canal between now and Thursday.
Source: CNN.
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