Associated Press
Potentially catastrophic flooding prompted emergency evacuations in China's Sichuan Province on Tuesday, even as aftershocks continued to batter the region and the threat of disease loomed for millions of refugees.
About 80,000 people were evacuated downstream of Tangjiashan, an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse.
The lake, near the town of Beichuan, is the largest of some 35 new bodies of water created by river-blocking rubble after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Sichuan May 12.
Some rising floodwaters have already swallowed villages, though only Tangjiashan posed a risk of another big catastrophe.
Hundreds of troops were working around the clock to dig a channel that would divert the rising waters before they breach the top of the rubble wall.
Officials fear the loose soil and debris wall could crumble easily if the water starts cascading over the top, sending a torrent flooding down into the valley below.
Tangjiashan now holds 34 billion gallons (130 billion liters) of water and was rising by more than three feet (a meter) every 24 hours, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
In a live broadcast, state television showed heavy earth-moving equipment being used to carve a 200-yard (180-meter) channel to help drain the lake's water.
"We are prepared to get rid of the trees by chopping and explosion. After that, the second batch of equipment will be moved in," Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying on CCTV.
The tree stumps were hampering heavy-duty excavators that were airlifted by helicopter in recent days to Tangjiashan, according to Xinhua.
Late-Night Evacuation
Xinhua also reported that emergency workers labored into the night to empty more than 30 villages near the lake.
