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Article: China's killer floods.(Special Report)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- April 17, 1995
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A major reason for damming the Yangtze is to stop it from flooding. This kind of disaster is one of China's nightmares. The Yangtze has a bad record in this respect, but the Yellow River (Huang Ho) is even worse.
In 1887, torrents of rain fell along the Yellow River's course. The rampaging river at last burst the dikes meant to hold it back. A foaming wall of water roared across the countryside, smashing 600 villages and towns. It then flooded an additional 1,500 villages. An estimated 2 million to 7 million people drowned in this disaster. In 1931, another Yellow River flood took an estimated 4 million lives.
The Yangtze River has flooded disastrously several ...