South China ravaged by floods, densely populated north in danger

19 hours ago

BEIJING (AFP) — Large areas of southern China were hit by the worst
storms and floods in decades, the government said on Tuesday, as
warnings emerged that the Yellow River in the north could also wreak
havoc for millions.

The prosperous Pearl River Delta was being ravaged by rising waters,
with parts of the major urban centres of Guangzhou and Shenzhen
submerged by flooding.

"We must remain clear-headed and not underestimate the serious nature
of the current flood and disaster situation," Vice Premier Hui Liangyu
said in comments posted on the website of the state flood prevention
headquarters.

The entire Pearl river was flooded, while some of its tributaries were
experiencing the biggest floods ever recorded, Hui said.

The civil affairs ministry said the death toll in nine southern
provinces and regions had reached 63 as of Tuesday, with 13 missing
since torrential rains began pummelling the area on June 7.

More than 1.66 million people have been evacuated in the hardest-hit
areas, with large swathes of farmland submerged and economic losses
totalling 14.5 billion yuan (2.1 billion dollars), the ministry said.

Hui also ordered the immediate evacuation of people in danger areas
and the strengthening of river dikes and reservoirs as water levels on
over 40 rivers nationwide exceeded warning levels.

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t...nkzZXw2M2Dka1w

Flood warning for China quake zone
Tens of thousands of survivors from last month's deadly earthquake in
southern China have been evacuated as heavy rains threaten to bring
floods to already devastated areas.

Days of downpours have already caused floods elsewhere in the south,
killing at least 57 people and forcing more than a million from their
homes.

The damage across nine provinces already exceeds $1bn officials say,
with forecasters warning that several more days of heavy rain are
expected.

Flood warnings have been posted along parts of the Yangtze, Pearl and
Yellow rivers.
"A major flood is feared if rain continues," Huang Boqing, deputy
director of flood control in the southern province of Guangdong, was
quoted as saying.

Mudslide warning
In earthquake-hit Sichuan province, some 70,000 people were reported
to have been evacuated from the town of Wenchuan, close to the
epicentre of last month's earthquake.

Most have been living in temporary tent cities after their homes were
destroyed in the quake. Experts warned of an increased risk of
mudslides in the area caused by heavy rains hitting ground already
loosened by the quake and hundreds of aftershocks.

Wenchuan was virtually flattened by the May 12 quake that left up to
87,000 dead or missing and up to five million homeless. Elsewhere in
the country, officials have been rushing to shore-up flood defences
along some of China's major rivers.

The situation on the Pearl river in southern China's Guangdong and
Guangxi provinces was said to be the most dangerous with water levels
at a 20-year high. Water levels were reported to have surpassed
warning levels by almost seven metres on one tributary of the Pearl in
Guangxi.

Hardest hit has been Guangdong province – a manufacturing area that
borders Hong Kong. The official Xinhua news agency said at least 20
people had died in the province with eight others listed as missing.

The flooding has also driven up prices in local markets, with
vegetable prices in Guangdong's biggest cities rising by around 70 per
cent. The state-run China Daily newspaper said the flooding of towns
in the Pearl River Delta region was the worst in 50 years.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...9789C6A973.htm

Here is an odd one:

Drilling of a gas exploration well – not an earthquake – caused the
eruption of a mud volcano on the Indonesian island of Java, a team of
international scientists has concluded.

The volcano, dubbed Lusi, has been spewing hot, foul-smelling mud for
two years and has forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes.
"All of the evidence points to a drilling induced origin for this
disaster," Mark Tingay, an Australian geologist and member of the team
of experts, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

He said the gas exploration firm, PT Lapindo Brantas, had been
"drilling with very narrow safety margins" at the site of the
eruption. Two years on from when the eruption first began, Tingay said
there was little hope that any human intervention would bring it to an
end.

"The time to stop this event has long passed," he said. "This is now a
phenomenon that will keep going until it naturally dies out."

In a joint statement the team of American, Indonesian and Australian
scientists who have been studying the volcano said they were "more
certain than ever" that the eruption was "an unnatural disaster".

The scientists' findings have been published in the journal Earth and
Planetary Science Letters.

"We show that the day before the mud volcano started, there was a huge
'kick' in the well, which is an influx of fluid and gas into the
wellbore," British professor Richard Davies was quoted as saying.

"We show that after the 'kick', the pressure in the well went beyond a
critical level. This resulted in the leakage of the fluid from the
well and the rock formations to the surface – a so-called underground
blowout. This fluid picked up mud during its ascent, and Lusi was
born."

In addition to the evacuations, Lusi has caused damage that the
Indonesian government estimates could reach $5bn.

The mud now covers about 6.5 sq km and continues to flow at a rate of
100,000 cubic metres, or 60 Olympic-size swimming pools, a day.
Various methods have been tried to stop the flow, including dropping
large concrete balls into the mouth of the volcano, but with no
effect.

The mining company, PT Lapindo Brantas, had argued that the May 2006
eruption was triggered by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that caused
widespread damage in and around the city of Yogyakarta two days before
the eruption.

But scientists involved in the latest study said the quake was too far
away and the change in underground pressure it caused would not have
been enough to cause the volcano. Indonesia's government has ordered
Lapindo to pay $406m in compensation to the victims of the volcano and
to cover the damage caused by the eruption.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...C54E76424B.htm

Wasn't that the one they were trying to assuage with concrete balls?

Well, that's it for this spell I think. It looks like there is a storm
brewing as there hasn't been a quake of over 5M since:
5.1 2008/06/16 14:15 39.084 140.607 E. HONSHU, JAPAN

Blast! I just got a weird e-mail in "question mark" that I have
realised now was probably a question about one of my posts on here.
Well It went in the spamalot and got dedded. Not that I could read it.

I think the poster picked out a section of one of my messages and sent
it on with the time as a title. But since the time was hours, minutes
and seconds I just thought "WTF?" and scrapped it.

I hope it wasn't portant.

Still if it was, he'll try again (in English maybe).