Over 26,000 killed in dam bursts in China in 1975: state media

Official statistics released 30 years after the dambursts on August 8, 1975, show more than 26,000 people were killed in the floods, the life of more than 10 million people was affected and all communication to and from the city were cut off. But some meteorologists and researchers said the figure might be even higher, the report said.

‘‘The number may be revised some day in future,’’ said an official with the Henan province Department of Water Resources who has studied the province’s flood disaster tolls for years.

The miserable story of China’s most devastating damburst has unfolded after China announced in September that it would declassify its natural disaster death tolls.

Heavy rainfall following a third typhoon had battered China in 1975. In Zhumadian, capital of Henan province with a population of about seven million, the 24.5-metre dam of the Banqiao reservoir was the first to be breached in the wee hours of August 8, releasing 700 million cubic metres of water within six hours.

The dams of the city’s other 61 reservoirs collapsed one after another within a short period, unleashing about six billion cubic metres of floods to an area of about 10,000 square kilometres. —PTI