Pictures: Huge Jets Shoot From Dam During China Floods

Floodwater Erupts

Photograph from Imaginechina/AP

Jets of water shoot through the Three Gorges Dam on July 27. On Wednesday the flow peaked at 1.96 million cubic feet (56,000 cubic meters) a second, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.

The amount of floodwater accumulating in the Three Gorges reservoir has pushed water levels to 518 feet (158 meters), according to Xinhua. The reservoir's maximum capacity is 575 feet (175 meters).

"Right now, the Han River in Hubei Province"—a branch of the Yangtze River, which flows through the dam—"is on the verge [of] breaching warning levels," a government official told AP yesterday.

Published July 29, 2010

Dwarfed by Floods

Photograph from Reuters

Workers watch Yangtze River floodwater jetting through the six-story-tall Three Gorges Dam on July 19. (Watch video of adventurers riding Yangtze River rapids.)

This year's floods in China are the worst since 1998, when torrential flooding killed 4,150 people, according to AP.

Published July 29, 2010

Flood Mud

Photograph from AFP/Getty Images

In the southwestern city of Chongqing—upstream from the Three Gorges Dam—Chinese firefighters clean up mud created by the deadly flooding in a picture taken July 22.

About 900,000 homes in China have already been destroyed by floods this year, according to AP. The large amounts of water being released by the two-year-old Three Gorges Dam could have a major impact on the millions of people that live downstream, including 9.1 million in the provincial capital of Wuhan.

Published July 29, 2010

three gorges dam floodwater china rubble

Photograph by AP

In this photo taken Saturday July 24, 2010, residents look after their belongings near buildings in low lying areas that were demolished in China's Hubei province.

Water levels crept lower from a record high in the reservoir behind the massive Three Gorges Dam on Sunday, but authorities warned they did not know whether the drop would continue.

Published July 29, 2010

Flotsam and Jetsam

Photograph from AFP/Getty Images

Workers on a specialized ship remove floating garbage, such as flood-swept trees, from the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam on July 21.

The flooding also washed 350,000 pounds (160,000 kilograms) of explosive chemicals into the flood-swollen Songhua River in Jilin Province, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. The contamination forced officials to shut off water supplies to nearly four million people, Reuters reported.

(Read about a Yangtze river dolphin that has gone extinct.)

Published July 29, 2010

Torrents to Continue?

ChinaFotoPress

Floodwaters course through the Three Gorges Dam on July 20.

In 2007 Chinese officials had guaranteed the dam would be able to withstand the equivalent to the worst flood seen in China in a thousand years, AP reported. But on Tuesday a government official told the China Daily newspaper that he could only "absolutely guarantee" the dam would withstand the worst flood in a hundred years.

Already this year, the flood-prone Yangtze River Basin has seen 15 percent more rain than average, Duan Yihong, of the National Meteorological Center, told Xinhua.

"Rains should begin to slow down in August, but it is hard to predict now what exactly will happen. We have to be vigilant and closely monitor the weather."

Published July 29, 2010