Flooding spreads more destruction in town below 'quake lake'

BEIJING-Low-lying areas in one of the towns most devastated by the May 12 earthquake were flooded Tuesday as a torrent of water surged out of a dangerous lake formed by landslides.The gushing water dislodged wrecked homes, cars and corpses.The flooding of parts of Beichuan, once the home of 22,000 people, is contributing to the total destruction of the town, which has become a symbol of the savagery of the earthquake.Government officials said in May that they wanted to preserve part of the ruined town, nestled in the mountains of northern Sichuan Province, as a memorial to the victims of the earthquake. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited the town shortly after the quake while rescue workers were still scouring the rubble for survivors.It was unclear how the flood Tuesday might affect any plans for a memorial.Survivors from Beichuan no longer live there. They have been moved to refugee camps or have sought shelter with friends and relatives. Many are recovering in hospitals across the region. Government officials have said they will rebuild Beichuan in a different location.Photographs of the flooding released Tuesday by Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, showed frothing brown water with a huge head of white foam coursing between dry mountain peaks. The water flowed beneath a concrete bridge that was still standing in Beichuan. Reporters for Xinhua saw trees, refrigerators and the occasional corpse of an earthquake victim being carried downstream out of the mountains.More than 69,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and more than 17,500 others are classified as missing. Many victims were buried too deep in the rubble to be pulled out. In Beichuan, as in other devastated towns, those corpses that were dug out were mostly buried later in anonymous mass graves after forensic scientists collected tissue or teeth samples for DNA testing.It was unclear whether the flood Tuesday had affected the main mass grave in Beichuan, located in the town center, near the wrecked police station.The surge of floodwater was part of an effort by engineers and soldiers to drain Tangjiashan, one of more than 30 "quake lakes" that were formed by landslides. For weeks, the dam of rocks and mud holding back the rising waters of Tangjiashan has threatened to burst and flood communities farther downstream that are home to 1.3 million people. The government has evacuated 250,000 people to higher ground, including straggling survivors in Beichuan.In late May, more than 600 soldiers and police officers dug a sluice about 400 meters, or 1,300 feet, long to try to drain Tangjiashan. Water began flowing down the channel last Saturday, even as observers reported that leakage in the dam signaled that the natural wall might be breached before pressure on the lake was sufficiently relieved.The flow of water along the sluice increased Tuesday morning to 1,760 cubic meters, or more than 62,000 cubic feet, per second. Xinhua reported that the rapid outflow means Tangjiashan's water level could soon drop to a nondangerous level.Besides Beichuan, parts of several other towns downstream from the lake were affected by floodwaters Tuesday.Across the region, quake relief efforts were continuing, but corruption remained a major concern. The government announced Tuesday that at least 15 officials in Sichuan Province had been removed from their jobs for mishandling quake aid and 13 others had been punished in other ways, Xinhua reported. Bloggers have been questioning the efficiency of aid organizations and where exactly the hundreds of millions of dollars of donations are going. The central government in Beijing has made a series of announcements recently saying it will carefully audit relief efforts and ensure transparency.The government also announced Tuesday that the wreckage of an army helicopter that crashed on May 31 had been discovered northwest of the town of Yingxiu, at the quake's epicenter. Five crew members and 14 quake survivors that the Russian-designed Mi-171 transport helicopter were carrying all died in the crash, Xinhua reported.Southwest of Yingxiu, staff workers at the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve buried a 9-year-old panda killed in a landslide during the earthquake, The Associated Press reported. The body of the panda, Mao Mao, was found Monday; she is the only panda confirmed to have been killed in the quake. One other panda, Xiao Xiao, is still missing.Several other pandas have been sent to the Beijing zoo while 47 remain in the reserve.

By Edward Wong

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/10/asia/quake.php

As in the days of Noah....