2010-07-26 08:10

XI'AN - Premier Wen Jiabao has told officials to prepare for "more serious floods and disasters", after water levels at the Three Gorges reservoir fell from a record high on Sunday and a crucial embankment in Shaanxi province was repaired.

Emergency staff use sand bags to block the breach of a dike on the Luofu River in Huayin, Shaanxi province, on Sunday. [Xinhua]?

The country was at a "crucial stage" in flood control, Wen said during an inspection tour that began on Friday in Hubei province where rising waters have put pressure on the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project.

Water levels in the Three Gorges reservoir dropped by more than 15 cm overnight and were about 16.8 meters lower than the reservoir's maximum capacity of 175 meters as of 8 am on Sunday, said an official surnamed Pei at Hubei's flood prevention headquarters.

No rain was expected in the region over the next three days, but the nation's flood control authorities said on Saturday that the water level at the dam would rise again and exceed the record high reached on Friday.

In Shaanxi, rescuers succeeded in blocking an 80-meter breach in the banks of the Luofu River, a tributary of the Weihe River, on Sunday afternoon, rescue headquarters said.

The breach occurred at about 6 am on Saturday and more than 2,000 soldiers and residents worked throughout the night to contain the flood waters, Guo Wenping, director of the city's press office, told China Daily.

More than 6,000 villagers were evacuated immediately after the breach and no one was hurt, Guo said.

Railways and highways also resumed operation on Sunday after repair work but trains and vehicles will operate at low speed in areas being repaired, the press officer said.

Heavy rain and flood in Shaanxi have killed 100 people and caused 74,915 houses to collapse since July 14. Parts of two railways and two highways were damaged by the flooding, with direct economic losses at 5.48 billion yuan ($807 million), the Shaanxi province emergency office said.

Heavy rain that hit the eastern part of the province where the Luofu River in Huayin is located had stopped by Sunday and there will be no heavy rain from Monday till the end of the month, said Wu Maifeng, deputy director of Shaanxi's Weinan meteorological observatory.

Rain also battered parts of Sichuan province over the weekend. Rain-triggered floods have left at least 32 people dead, 38 others missing and forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people since July 15, figures from the provincial government showed.

Flooding has affected nearly 12 million people in 85 counties, provincial emergency response office reported. The number of people evacuated this summer is larger than in any previous flood in the past decade, it said.

From July 15 to 19, the strongest rain this year lashed Sichuan and water level in the Dazhou and Guang'an sections of the Qujiang River was above the alert mark.

Almost all the buildings in the old city district of Guang'an were submerged in the most severe flood since 1847 and the economic losses surpassed 9.1 billion yuan, the provincial department of water conservancy reported.

From July 22 to 25, heavy rain also struck western and northwestern Sichuan.

On Saturday, rainfall amounted to nearly 300 millimeters in some villages in Zitong county and rain-triggered floods stranded more than 300 villagers, said Li Jiang, an information officer with the provincial government.

All residents stranded by the floods were taken to safety but the waters destroyed nearly 50 houses in the village and affected more than 500 households, he said.

One of this year's heaviest thunderstorms, which lasted from Saturday evening to Sunday morning, delayed more than 200 flights in the airport in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, and stranded more than 9,000 passengers.

Heavy rains will continue until 2 pm on Monday in the southwestern, southeastern and northeastern parts of the country, the National Meteorological Center forecast on Sunday.

Floods in country this year had left 742 people dead and 367 missing as of Friday, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters reported.

Xie Yu and AP contributed to this story.