Muddy lake water from a dangerously unstable ”quake lake” rushed into the devastated Chinese town of Beichuan on Tuesday, covering about a third of the settlement where the water level was rising fast.
Chinese troops are carving a third drainage channel into the unstable dam holding back a big ”quake lake”, as water levels rise and aftershocks send more debris tumbling into the water, state media reported on Monday.
Chinese officials have sent condolences and payments to parents of children killed in a school that crumpled in the country’s earthquake.
China’s unprecedented openness following last month’s earthquake is proving short-lived, as soldiers begin to cut off sensitive areas and as local media face growing reporting restrictions.
Chinese troops began easing pressure on a dangerously swollen ”quake lake” on Saturday, with water gushing into a man-made sluice in an operation monitored by satellite.
China readied on Friday to ease pressure on a swollen ”quake lake” threatening hundreds of thousands of people downstream in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
China, facing emergencies ranging from swollen lakes to rehousing millions after last month’s devastating earthquake, is looking to the future.
When last month’s Sichuan earthquake struck, Fan Meizhong was teaching a literature class at Guangya high school in the town of Dujiangyan. ”It’s an earthquake,” he shouted, before legging it out of the door.