China plans mass evacuation
30/5/08
More than one million people may have to urgently evacuate a Chinese valley that is under the threat of flooding from an earthquake-spawned lake. Emergency officials have been preparing to run a drill on Saturday to ensure 1.3 million people in dozens of villages in the Mianyang region can be evacuated quickly. Hundreds of Chinese troops are working around the clock in the northern part of Sichuan province to drain the Tangjiashan lake, which formed above Beichuan town when a hillside plunged into the river valley. Initial reports by the official Xinhua news agency on Friday suggested that the 1.3 million people had already been ordered to leave the valley. But an official with the press office of Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters, said the report was incorrect.
See; http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/596BE675-493B-4C58-9B5D-6B6635A82E2F.htm
Tags: China, Environment