Residents of flooded town to be relocated

Hunan's provincial government plans to relocate all the residents of Tuanzhou township to different areas after it was flooded early last month due to a dike breach at nearby Dongting Lake, Hunan Daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper said a meeting presided over by Hunan Governor Mao Weiming on Sunday afternoon decided that residents should rebuild their homes elsewhere.

Local authorities should accelerate their efforts to complete the task in a high-quality and efficient way and make sure residents can pursue further development opportunities in their new homes, the report said. It did not contain detailed information about the resettlement plan.

After the dike breach on July 5, an area of 47.6 square kilometers — 92.5 percent of the township — was flooded. All 7,680 people living in Tuanzhou were transferred to safe places, and there have been no reports of casualties.

Tuanzhou township was established in 1977 after local governments around Dongting Lake began enclosing low-lying land for agricultural production. Dikes and embankments were built to separate the townships from each other and the lake. Fourteen people died in Tuanzhou in 1996 when flooding from a similar dike breach struck the township.

Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake, connects Hunan's major rivers with the Yangtze River.

The breach was sealed on July 8, and most of the floodwater was drained by July 31, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to media reports, water and electricity supplies have resumed in the township. Local authorities have also started to help farmers plant rice and clean up after the flood. They have also provided local people with daily necessities and food.

Services at the township hospital resumed on Aug 11. Local governments will cover all the medical bills of Tuanzhou residents after they are reimbursed by medical insurance by the end of this year, Yueyang Daily reported.

Luo Jiayi, 19, and his family went to his grandparents' home in Tuanzhou recently to help them clean the house, a task that eight people took five days to complete.

"Everything looked pale, and the township seemed lifeless with garbage everywhere and crops withered," he said. "I feel shocked, awful and helpless."

There was a terrible rotten odor, and the refrigerator and quilts became too heavy to move after being soaked with water, he said.

"The family's photo album is gone, and there was mold everywhere," Luo said. "We all feel terrible."

Mao Shaohong, Luo's grandfather, broke his ankle when he ran toward safety after the dike breach occurred. He has been shuttled between his house in Tuanzhou, his daughter's home in Huarong and his son's home in Changsha since the accident.

He and his wife do not want to move to a new place because the family had just renovated their house before the flood.

The family's ancestors are also buried there, in a place with good feng shui, and he said he was worried he might not get farmland if they move to a new place, adding that he does not believe another flood will strike the township anytime soon.

But a township resident surnamed Liu said she has to resettle elsewhere.

Her house was destroyed by the flood, and she said the floodwaters had left a lot of cobblestones and sand on farmland.

"The farmland is no longer suitable to farm anymore, and it will take too much effort to make it arable," Liu said. "To restart our life in a new place is our best choice."