You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
China-Japan-Koreas
China Says Worst of Flooding Still to Come as Situation ‘Severe'
2020-07-28
[Yahoo Finance] China warned that the worst of the deluges that have led millions to be evacuated may be yet to come, after a third wave of floods formed in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River on Sunday.

"The flood control and flood fighting situation is severe," China’s water resources ministry said in a statement. "The new peak may appear later."

Authorities ordered the Three Gorges Reservoir to save its water-storing capacity in preparation for more flows, and forecast another three days of torrential rain in the southern region.

China’s south has been battered by severe floods after water levels reached records. More than 2 million people have been evacuated this month along the Yangtze River, Asia’s longest, with 142 dead or missing since the flooding began in June. It has also caused over 116 billion yuan ($17 billion) in damages, and impacted more than 2.4 million hectares (6.1 million acres) of crops in July.

The Three Gorges Reservoir is expecting water inflows to surge to about 60,000 cubic meters per second by about Tuesday. The reservoir level was at 159.46 meters as of Monday, down from 164.18 meters about a week ago. Its maximum capacity is 175 meters.
Posted by:Frank G

#17  Clem, you gotta dig deeper.
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-07-28 17:46  

#16  Air Pollution in China: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-07-28 13:55  

#15  Chinese probably couldn't see any clouds through all of the smog.
Posted by: Clem   2020-07-28 13:51  

#14  What is the name of that guy over at the Haliburton Cloud Seeding division? Bob Something...
Posted by: SteveS   2020-07-28 13:43  

#13  If you trust ANY Chinese data it's 181 m (594 ft) high above rock base. Overtopping isn't failure, it's just a flooding problem IMHO. Wall or base failure would be catastrophic, as 3DC and AP have noted
Posted by: Frank G   2020-07-28 13:39  

#12  OK all you dam engineers.

How much higher can the water get before it over-tops the dam? Is that the same as the dam failing?

Do the generators keep running just fine as long as there's enough water?
Posted by: AlanC   2020-07-28 13:08  

#11  No rain in Texas today.
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-07-28 12:43  

#10  average flow of the Mississippi River at New O is about 50k cubic metres but that is way downriver at St L the average is about 20k

during the great flood of 1993, the flow at St L reached about 90k cubic metres, in 2019 the flow at New Orleans reached about 110 cubic metres

Posted by: lord garth   2020-07-28 12:22  

#9  Several of us have been following the events at the dam and upstream of 3 gorges dam on the Yangtse River.

Chinese website water levels, especially at the dam are suspect, but given what we saw, the flow through the dam tunnels and power generating turbines has been in the neighborhood of 57,700 cubic meters per second. The water level at the dam is reported to be 163.21, rising at between 0.5 to 1 meter per day.

The big unknown is the huge typhoon developing upstream near Chengdu, in a potential area of a circle 1000km in diameter or 745,000 sq km. This area is forecast to have a total of 1 meter of water drop on the land. It is not known to us the details of the watershed and how much water will flow into the Yangtse. To give you an idea of the potential for catastrophic flooding and danger to the dam, the 3 gorges reservoir is only 1000 sq kilometers in area. The potential runoff into the reservoir could be catastrophic.

Remember that emergency water releases from the dam will cause catastrophic flooding downstream in their own right, so Chinese authorities at this time will try to limit discharges to avoid the physical and PR consequences of flooding.

The authorities have put themselves in a real fix. The objectives of the dam are three: generate electricity, provide flood control, and movement of ships up the Yangtse through the locks. Presently the dam produces 60% of China's electricity. That means they must keep the reservoir as full as they dare to maximize electrical energy production.

But this conflicts with the goal of flood control. The reservoir must be drawn at times to provide capacity to absorb surges in flows due to storms. It must be carefully managed in a TIMELY manner. You cannot cram for a storm event without releasing large amounts of water and flooding downstream.

So the authorities are literally between the devil and the deep blue sea. The reservoir is almost full and there is a potentially HUGE storm surge coming.

Place your bets on the outcome, ladies and gentlemen. However, this is no laughing matter.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2020-07-28 11:56  

#8  We could send them sponges, plastic buckets, siphon hoses and basement pumps from Harbor Freight.

OH, wait..
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-07-28 10:11  

#7  This is what happens when you let the Chairman's nephew decide to build a damn and then he let's his cousin design it and figure out where to put it.
"Situation severe" I'm leaving the country before this thing let's loose. "
Posted by: Thaith Elmeresing6163   2020-07-28 10:07  

#6  ^ Nice. Any structure can deform ductilely given enough stress...all the way to the point it becomes inelastic (doesn't return to shape). A concrete dam - not so much.
Posted by: Frank G   2020-07-28 09:59  

#5  Matt - timely advice on that from Bruce Dickinson.
Posted by: Raj   2020-07-28 09:45  

#4  Crap - I had today in the Rantburg dam death pool. Oh well, there's always that longshot Kamala Harris bet...
Posted by: Raj   2020-07-28 09:43  

#3  Frank et al help me out here: The Chinese who are permitted to speak described the dam as "deformed slightly." That's an engineering term I'd never heard. How does it differ from "deformed bigly" or "run for your lives"?
Posted by: Matt   2020-07-28 09:35  

#2  Still waiting for the dam to go.
Posted by: DarthVader   2020-07-28 09:19  

#1  Nikkei:
China warns of new floods as Three Gorges Dam under pressure

GDP may fall 0.2% in Q3 in the face of 45m evacuees and $17bn in damages
Posted by: Frank G   2020-07-28 08:43  

00:00