FLOOD MENACE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 220, 13 June 1933, Page 9

FLOOD MENACE

Yangtze River Rises 39FT. ABOVE NORMAL Fears for Repetition of 1931 HEAVY RAIN FALLING By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright (Received June 12, 9.30 p.m.) Shanghai, June 12. Fear is freely expressed at Hankow of the possibility of a repetition of the Yangtze floods of 1931. The river has reached 39 feet above its usual low-water mark on June 9, which is six inches above the 1031 level on the same date. The Governor of Hupeh, in a telegram to the Nanking authorities, states that the river Is within five feet of the top of the Bund, and appeals for assistance with precautionary measures. It is believed that unless heavy rain ceases, the dykes built last year will be subjected to a very considerable test WHEN THE YANGTZE OVERFLOWS One 0/ World’s Biggest Waterways THE DISASTER OF 1931 In Europe, if 50 families are rendered homeless and 20 people drowned by a river in spate, the event is hailed as a national disaster. So it is not easy, to Western eyes, to realise the enormous scale on which things take place when two rivers like Yangtze and Hwangho overflow their banks, writes a Hankow correspondent in “The Times" during! the great floods of 1931. First, one must realise that the Yangtze is one of the world's biggest waterways, rising in the huge snowfields of Tibet, and fed by numberless tributaries. For the first 2600 miles of its length the river flows through high ground, beautiful gorges, and mountain sc.nery. It is not until it reaches Shasi. about 800 miles from Woosung. at its mouth, and 200 miles from Hankow, the great city of the river, that the vsHev flattens out into vast fertile plains. Those plains stretch for miles on either side of the river, and are very little above its normal ■ summer height. There are. however, two hnttleneoks formed by chains of hills. One is Inst above Hankow, the other above Kiukiang. ' ’ The Area Flooded. This year the rainy season was exceptional. and the river rose rapid’y. Still the rain fell until it became evident that there would he floods on a large scale. By the middle of July vast tracts of country were threatened. i By the end of the month the damage had been done. From Shasi to Hankow’s now one stupendous sheet of water. About 150 miles in InTm'-'h. this area hn< been flooded in places for 20 m’les from the river bank. Occasional h ! llocks stand out. T To re and there, where the Current is not string. m"v h" seen the roofs of vi’lanes whose inhabitants are ITv’ntr in sampans and Hunks. ■Thorp thev stay nnt : l starvation.drives them into the h’g towns. Another sh"“t of water stretches from TTotil.-ow ta th" hnttlo-roolr nhove Kiukinng. From Jthosi to if is nH the same. During the ri«e of the flood many melancholy sights were seen hy travellers In river steamers. Small spits of land, sliahtly higher than the rest, were peopled bv two op three families pM tho'r live stock. There they remained, thm'r Inst card played, until death brought release. But these individual disasters are nothing in the light of the news that comes in every day) Reports of whole districts being suddenly wiped mt by the bursting of " dylto) reports nf 7690 drowned here. 5000 there, while other areas ore lucky to have lost. only 500 or so. These figures nre. of conree, conjectural, for the population of China is an unknown quantity. Suffice it to snv that by the end nf this disaster the number of the drowned wil’ exceed 1.000 000. Far more will have died from starvation' and disease. These are the two terrible consequences of the disaster. Rice Crops Ruined. Rice is the staple food of China. The ch'ef rice-producing districts are the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys. It is estimated that not more than 30 per cent, of the crop will be saved. The floods have driven the refugees into the big towns in thousands. Although mostly built on slightly higher ground, they too are nearly all flooded. Nanking, the capital of •. the Republic, stands in 2ft. to 3ft. of water. So does Kiukiang. Hankow, the greatest city and commercial port of the Yangtze, has at its back a large, swift tributary, the Han River. First of all the town was flooded by rain water which could not escape because the level in the drains was too high. Later the Yangtze rose over the Bund, and many parts of the city were flooded to a depth of 4ft. R’ckshaws still plied for hire though the water was level with their seats. Sampans in the streets became an everyday sight. Meanwhile, thousands of refugees came continually pouring in from the surrounding country. Most encamped on the higher ground at the back of the city, with what goods and live stock they had r* jaged to save. This land was prot».ed by dykes from the Han River and by the railway embankment from the town floods. Eventually one of the dykes burst and flooded most of this ground. The refugees fled to the railway tracks. The latter were broken in two places, but yet provide sanctuary for thousands. Opposite Hankow is the town of Wuchang. Parts of this are as yet dry, and the local authorities nre transporting thousands across the river. But the Wuchang dykes are all in (j‘precarious condition. Several thousand people, together with quantities of live stock, are being housed in the various “foreign” godowns. The conditions in Hankow itself are appalling. The price of food is soaring, and famine faces the city. But the worst feature is the condition of the vast majority of refugees, estimated at about 70,000. Imagine a mud road-about three miles long and 15 yards wide, with remains of mat sheds and bits of sacking serving as cover. People it with thousands of refugees of all ages and in all conditions of health. People it so thickly in your imagination that there is only a path 4ft. wide down the middle. Remember that about a quarter of them are children under the age of six. To this hell add pigs, chickens,’ ducks, and emaciated dogs. Now realise that for this vast, tightly-packed multitude, there are no sanitary arrangements whatever. That is one aspect of Hankow. Now imagine, if you can. the slums of a great Eastern city. Fill the streets with water to a depth of 3ft. If you can fully understand what this means, yon have another aspect of this huge disaster. The only land that is not flooded is thnt pnrt by the railway that is covered with refugees. If anyone dies there is nowhere to bury the body. Starvation and plague seem inevitable. Although the heavy , rains have now ceased, the snow-water is coming down from the mountains, and this ■water, held up by the two bottlenecks, will keep the valley flooded for a

month or more. Every crop, every house in these areas, will be irretrievably ruined. Upwards o£ 50,000,000 people will be affected, so that when the river level has sunk to normal the distress will continue for many months. Watching the Dykes. A letter to the “North China Daily News” from a correspondent in Anhwei described the district between Wuhu and Chaohsien as the richest of _ the ricegrowing country, and containing thousands of populous villages and market towns, the whole now .a waste of waters above which shows only an occasional tree or housetop. “The people have been driven to high ground miles away, but the tragedies that have been enacted as they sought to save families and property will never be told. Near Chaohsien 130 men were Irowned at once when the dyke they were trying to save suddenly gave and the waters engulfed them. The farmers had watchmen on the dykes who bent gongs when, the waters began to trickle over. Immediately a gong sounded the farmers,, day. or night, went running from all directions to build up the dyke. All night long the writer heard the beating of the gongs as the watchmen called the neighbours. They would work desperately, adding inch by inch of earth, but in every case, this year, their efforts were in vain, for ultimately the floods poured over into fields and gardens, often overtaking the people before they could get boats and leave their homes. . . . Since July 25 a large part of the farm lands of this great district has been submerged. The mulberry groves have become swamps; the standing rice rears its stalks in a seemingly endless sea; the roads in hundreds of places are covered with water. Houses have been undermined and have collapsed. All launch service to other towns has been discontinued for over six weeks and the exchange of commodities is practically at a standstill. Such is the tale of woe for this ordinarily rich and prosperous region.” A doctor writing from Hankow gives a painful impression of a first visit to a camo of" 20.000 refugees. “The; absence of any sanitary convenience had converted the camp into one large open latrine, aggravated by an epidemic of dysentery ... the numbers of flies swarming on the food were unbelievable . . . dead'bodies wrapped in mats lay unburied and giving rise to foul odours . . . one corpse of a girl of 12 uncovered by the dogs . . . especially among the children dysentery wns taking toll . . . sick children in almost every other shelter lay in a semi-comatose con dition, but nursed by some member of the family trying to keep them clean . . . adults, howiwer, were generally carried to the outskirts of the camp and left to die by themselves . . . everywhere apathy was apparent in the faces of the refugees, after they learned thnt neither of their, two needs (medicine and food) could be met bv this first survey group.”