Flood-hit dyke in south China suffers new breach

FUZHOU, China (Reuters) - A flood-battered dyke in China suffered a fresh breach on Wednesday as heavy flooding that has killed more than 210 people in the past week intensified and about 100,000 residents fled after an earlier break in its wall.

The Fu River in Jiangxi province first burst through the protective Changkai Dyke late on Monday after days of torrential rain, threatening areas near the small city of Fuzhou.

The river punched through the embankment again early on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency said. Residents whose homes were threatened had already been evacuated at night.

Troops in orange vests were using boats to search for stranded residents and take them to safety.

"We did not want to leave but they said there would be more heavy rain in the coming few days, so we decided to bring the children out," said Xiong Feijie, 31, who had been living on the upper floor of her home in Changkai town for the last two days.

Soldiers, civil militia and police were concentrating their efforts in towns like Changkai on rescuing the elderly, children and pregnant women, and taking evacuees to a stadium in Fuzhou.

"We were lacking rescue equipment the past few days, so they have been sending us more boats today and we've stepped up rescue work," said rescuer Cui Suilai.

In some areas, the flood waters were up to chest level, inundating the ground floors of homes, shops and restaurants.

Heavy rain across much of southern China over the past week has killed at least 211 people and left 119 missing as rivers broke their banks and landslides severed road and rail links, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

More than 2.4 million people have been evacuated, although many are moved only short distances.

ECONOMIC LOSSES

The floods have caused economic losses of around 42.12 billion yuan ($6.2 billion), with more than 1.6 million hectares of farmland flooded and about 195,000 houses collapsing.

The emergency has evoked memories of severe flooding in China in 1998, when then Premier Zhu Rongji complained that many flood-prevention dykes were shoddy piles of "tofu dregs" -- the refuse from making tofu -- left vulnerable by lax officials.

This time, the country's leaders appear determined to use the flood threat as a show of national strength and the rescue effort is receiving intense attention in state media.

But an unidentified senior disaster prevention official told the official Beijing Daily newspaper that "some weak links require attention."

"Especially along medium-sized and smaller rivers, flood prevention standards are lower, and as soon as a major flood happens there's an extreme likelihood of dangers," the report cited the official as saying.

More than 15,000 people, including troops and police, were attempting to staunch the Changkai Dyke breach with sandbags and other material, official news reports said.

Officials rushed to seal the first breach in the dyke that expanded to 400 meters (440 yards), swallowing chunks of the 82 km (50 miles) barrier protecting a low-lying farming area with about 150,000 residents.

By Wednesday, troops and officials had shepherded to safety 100,000 people whose homes were flooded or threatened, Xinhua said. It said there had been no casualties to date.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for "all-out efforts to combat floods and save lives" following the dyke's collapse, Xinhua reported.

Parts of China endure deadly floods nearly every year. The National Meteorological Center has warned that the current rain could keep pounding parts of the south until Saturday.

In parts of Fujian and Guangdong province more than 100 cm (39 inches) of rain has fallen in the past few days, state media said. More rain is forecast for the rest of the week.

Worst hit were the provinces and regions of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi. Some of these areas had been suffering a severe drought a few months ago.

($1 = 6.796 Yuan)

(Writing and additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)