Three Gorges Closes During Second Yangtze Flood Crest PeriodLocks and diversion ditches in the Three Gorges area were closed Monday due to the second Yangtze River flood crest on the upper reaches of China's longest river after days of consecutive rainfall.The Yangtze River Hydrometeorological Bureau said that at Yichang, a city on the upper reaches, water passed at 52,500 cu m per second at 8:00 this morning. To ensure navigational security, The Three Gorges Navigational Bureau closed the area at 8:00 yesterday morning when the waterflow exceeded 45,000 cu m per second. The water flow at Yichang is expected to be 53,500 cu m at 2:00 a.m. tomorrow, and at Shashi City on the Jingjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze, the crest will be 43.1 m, or 0.1 m over the danger line. The water level at Wuhan City on the middle reaches of the Yangtze will rise to 25 m in the next five days. |
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