On July 24, the weather in Enshi, Hubei cleared up. This was the fourth day that a large-scale soil landslide occurred in the area and the formation of a dammed lake.
According to the press conference in the early morning of July 22, Enshi City, at 5:30 on July 21, a huge landslide occurred in the sand dam of Mazhe Village, Tunpu Township, Enshi City. Approximately 1.5 million cubic meters of soil slipped into the Qingjiang River, blocking the river course and forming Barrier lake.
The Beijing News reporter learned that after the formation of the dammed lake, the local area increased the discharge of Yunlonghe Reservoir upstream of the dammed lake on the one hand, flushed the top of the dammed lake, and allowed water from the dammed lake to be discharged; at the same time vacated the Dalongtan Reservoir downstream of the dammed lake Storage capacity to prevent floods caused by dam breaks. At present, the water level of the barrier lake has dropped significantly, and the risk of dam failure has been alleviated.
At the same time, the government quickly organized the transfer of people, provided resettlement sites for the victims, and planned to build new homes for the villagers whose houses collapsed. The landslide caused no casualties.
At present, the local area is still closely monitoring the landslide body and the barrier lake, and the road and mountain body with cracks above the landslide zone are covered with oil cloth to prevent rainwater from seeping through the cracks and triggering new landslide dangers.
Preventing dam breaks in dammed lakes: release water from the upstream to open the top of the dammed lake, and flood the reservoir downstream
The landslide point is located in the sand dam of Mazhe Village, Tunpu Township, Enshi City, in the Qingjiang River Valley. In the early morning of July 22, the Enshi Municipal Government held a press conference to announce that under the influence of more than one month of continuous heavy rainfall, the sand dam in Mazhe Village was deformed geologically and landslides and debris flows occurred. At about 5:30 am on July 21, about 1.5 million cubic meters of soil slipped into the Qingjiang River, blocking the Qingjiang River and forming a barrier lake.
The press conference reported that after the formation of the barrier lake, the local area took emergency measures to increase the discharge flow of the Yunlong River Reservoir upstream of the barrier lake. Together with the water from the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River, the top of the barrier lake was washed away. From the aerial photos taken by the Beijing News reporter on July 22, we can see that at the edge of the landslide, a stream of water flows down from the barrier lake.
The Yunlong River is a tributary of the Qingjiang River. The Yunlong River Reservoir is located more than ten kilometers upstream of Mazhe Village where the landslide occurred. At noon on July 23, a reporter from the Beijing News arrived near the Yunlong River Reservoir. A local villager said that starting from July 21, for two consecutive days, he could hear the flood discharge alarm of Yunlonghe Reservoir every day. “An alarm will be issued before the flood is released, and the alarm will sound for 10 minutes each time, and the water will be released after three times.”
On the afternoon of July 23, a person in charge of the Yunlong River Hydropower Station confirmed that the reservoir had been releasing water downstream in the previous two days. “There is a certain amount of control. The water here cannot be too large, otherwise the collapsed body may be washed away.”
According to the above-mentioned press conference report, the Yunlong River Reservoir increased the discharge flow, plus the water from the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River, flushed the top of the dammed lake with a water flow of 200 cubic meters per second, the dammed lake was discharged, and the water level dropped (July 21) Compared with 12:00 noon at 18:00, the upstream water level drops by 4.27 meters).
At the same time, on the day that the barrier lake was formed, many rescue teams arrived at Mazhe Village. On the evening of July 21, a rescuer from the Enshi Fire Brigade told the Beijing News that one of their rescue work was to dredge the river to prevent greater blockage.
While diverting water to hit the top of the dammed lake, according to the announcement of the Enshi City Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on July 21, in order to cope with the possible risk of dam failure of the dammed lake, the local area increased the discharge of the downstream Dalongtan Reservoir.
Dalongtan Reservoir is located about 10 kilometers upstream of Enshi City. The flood discharge of Dalongtan Reservoir will cause the river to rise in the lower reaches of the urban area. At 12 o'clock noon on July 21, a reporter from the Beijing News saw at the Fengyu Bridge section of the Qingjiang River in the urban area that the water level of the Qingjiang River had risen significantly compared with the previous two days, the water flow was rushing, the bank cordoned off and people were on duty along the bank. A staff member informed that the water level began to rise from the morning that day because of the flood discharge of the Dalongtan Reservoir.
As the top of the barrier body "opened", the water continued to flow downstream. In addition, in the past two days, the weather in Enshi has turned fine, there is no more rain, and the water level of the barrier lake continues to fall. The Beijing News reporter learned that there is a bridge slope bridge upstream of the dammed lake, which usually has a drop of more than ten meters from the river. After the dammed lake was formed, the bridge surface was once submerged, but as the water level of the dammed lake dropped, an aerial photograph was taken. It can be seen that the bridge slope bridge has emerged, and the risk of dam failure has been alleviated.
Transfer and resettlement of more than 1,300 villagers, plan to rebuild collapsed houses
On the morning of July 24, 35-year-old Ai Xingwei and a dozen other villagers sat together at the door of the Mazhe Village Committee Office to discuss with the village cadres about the accommodation of the villagers.
A week ago, on July 17, the villager of Mazhe Village, Chen Guangming, first discovered cracks on the surface. As a local geological disaster monitor, he quickly reported the cracks to Tunpu Township. Because the sand dam had a landslide before, the local government paid great attention to it and evacuated some villagers in the afternoon.
On the morning of July 24, Shu Youling, deputy party secretary of Mazhe Village, told the Beijing News that four groups of villagers had been transferred from the village. First, some villagers near the crack were transferred on the 17th and 18th. By the evening of the 19th, there were houses in the village. There is a landslide and collapse, and more residents need to be transferred. "There are three reasons for the transfer. One is that the house collapses or cracks; the other is that the house is located in the lower reaches of the dammed lake. Once the dam is broken, the house is easily flooded. The third is that the debris flow caused by the landslide may destroy the house."
An aerial photo of the landslide area was hung in the village committee office. The yellow tongue-shaped landslide body was drawn out with a red circle. "The area within the red line is a dangerous zone. No matter the house falls, it must be moved." Shu Youling said.
Ai Xingwei's house is within the "red line". Three days ago, he evacuated from his home and moved into a temporary government tent. He told the Beijing News reporter that according to the government's resettlement policy, if the villagers take care of food and accommodation by themselves, such as living with relatives, the government will give a subsidy of 20 yuan per person per day. If they enjoy government resettlement and the government provides food and accommodation, there will be no subsidy.
At present, most of the people affected by the disaster have turned to relatives and friends, and many people have moved to the higher Mazhe Street. On July 24, a reporter from the Beijing News saw in Mazhe Street that almost every house was stacked with clothing, electrical appliances, pots and pans rescued by the victims.
Mazhe Street is on the only way to the Enshi Grand Canyon Scenic Area. There are many B&B hotels, and the temporary government headquarters is located in a B&B. A homestay hotel was temporarily transformed into a "cauldron dining canteen". Five cauldrons and three chopping boards were set up in the hotel to prepare meals for nearly 1,000 people, including staff and some of the affected villagers.
Women living nearby came to support and worked in the kitchen from 6 in the morning until 11 in the evening. Starting from July 23, volunteers came to help with cooking, and local companies and nearby villagers also sent a lot of vegetables and rice noodles.
A reporter from the Beijing News learned from the Mazhe Village Committee that as of July 22, about 300 households with more than 1,300 people in the "red line" area had been transferred, of which about 80 houses had collapsed. At present, the township government has set up a special class for relocation and resettlement. Through on-site surveys, it has preliminarily selected an address for building a new house in the township, and is discussing with the relevant planning department to prepare a resettlement plan.
Restore intermittent water supply in the urban area to cover the mountain to prevent new landslides
The landslide triggered a series of secondary disasters. In Mufu Township near Mazhe Village, a landslide damaged electric wires and caused power outages in some residents' homes. A crack about 10 cm wide appeared on the Tunyu Highway, which was only tens of meters away from the place where the landslide was most severe.
In a place called Hanshuiwan by the locals, the sand dam was the worst affected. From the aerial photos, it can be seen that only two of the more than 60 local households have not collapsed.
On July 23, the owner of the two houses, villager Tan Feng, told the Beijing News that the house had just been built last year. “Although it hasn’t collapsed, it won’t be able to live anymore. There are palm-wide cracks everywhere.” Tan Feng Said that the brick factory he built with more than 1 million investment completely collapsed in the landslide. Another villager, Tan Quanfa, invested more than 2 million yuan and built a blueberry base covering an area of more than 60 mu. About two-thirds of the blueberry base was also damaged in this landslide.
In addition, the water quality of Dalongtan Reservoir in the lower reaches of Mazhe Village was also affected by landslides, and a large area of water was cut off in Enshi City, which uses the reservoir as a water source.
According to a notice issued by the Enshi City Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on July 22, due to a landslide in Mazhe Village and a large amount of sediment flowing into the Qingjiang River, the turbidity of the raw water of the Dalongtan Reservoir was seriously exceeded, and tap water could not be produced and supplied. The plant ceased production, and nearly 85% of users in the urban area stopped supplying tap water.
According to a number of residents in Enshi City, two days ago, someone rode an electric car with two buckets to the outskirts of water, and the water in the ponds of some communities was scooped up.
On July 22, the staff of the Central China Base of the National Water Supply Emergency Rescue Center rushed to assist with 13 emergency water supply vehicles to dispatch tap water from nearby township water plants to the urban area to meet basic water needs. On July 24, the Enshi City Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters issued a notice stating that on July 23, the urban area will resume intermittent water supply.
In order to prevent future rains from possibly triggering new landslides, local organization personnel will cover part of the mountain with oil cloth and geomembrane. On July 24, a staff member of the Natural Resources and Planning Institute of Tunpu Township told the Beijing News reporter that this is "In order to prevent rainwater from flowing down the cracks and seeping into the soil, new landslides occur."
Beijing News reporter Xiang Kai intern Wu Xiaoxuan