On the evening of July 5th, the breach of Dongting Lake in Huarong County, Hunan Province, China caused by the failure of the authorities’ containment efforts resulted in a rapid influx of floodwater into the villages, prompting local residents to evacuate overnight. Within a few hours, the floodwaters had reached the rooftops of villagers’ homes, leading to public outrage over the perceived incompetence of the authorities.
According to reports from several mainland Chinese media outlets, around 4 p.m. on July 5th, the embankment of Dongting Lake at the Huarong County’s Tuanzhou dyke (pile number 19+800) was at risk of breaching. Local government officials attempted to block the breach by using several trucks loaded with sand and gravel as makeshift barriers and deploying two sand dredgers to continuously fill the breach with sand. By around 5:48 p.m., just over an hour later, the breach had widened from 10 meters to nearly 100 meters, resulting in the failure of the containment efforts and the embankment collapsing.
As per the official announcement from the Chinese Communist Party authorities, by 11 p.m. on the 5th, the breach in the Dongting Lake embankment had expanded to over 150 meters wide, leading to the closure of all entry and exit roads in Huarong County and the evacuation of over 5,000 residents from six nearby villages.
State media CCTV reported as of 11 a.m. the next day (July 6th), the difference in water levels inside and outside the breached area was 0.10 meters, spanning a distance of 226 meters.
Videos captured the swift inundation of the villages by the surging lake water, driving residents to undertake urgent evacuations overnight. Many abandoned their electrical appliances and large belongings on the roads as they fled. Some individuals were seen carrying only small luggage, walking with young children, while others used tricycles to transport elderly family members and belongings to safety.
The influx of vehicles led to traffic congestion and accidents on the roads, resulting in some vehicles being damaged in collisions.
The ferocious floodwaters continued to engulf the villages adjacent to the embankment, submerging and sweeping away houses in an instant. Upon hearing of the embankment breach, nearby villagers promptly fled the area. Within a few hours, the floodwaters had overwhelmed the rooftops of villagers’ homes.
Videos revealed instances where some villagers failed to evacuate in time and found themselves stranded on the rooftops of their houses.
Online videos circulated showing that when the embankment breached, it was initially only 10 meters wide. However, instead of utilizing sandbags or boulders to block the breach, the local government employed loose sand, leading to trucks laden with sand and banners being swept away by the flood, causing the breach to widen rapidly to over 150 meters within a short period.
Other footage depicted several trucks filled with sand being thrown into the breach at Dongting Lake’s embankment and subsequently being overwhelmed by the rushing water, spilling over into the fields and surging towards the villages.
Outraged netizens criticized the authorities for their perceived incompetence:
“There were no sandbags or large stones prepared, and on the 30th, they were boasting about their ample flood prevention preparations, but all we see now are banners.”
“There was no emergency plan in place; they should have been prepared with a large supply of sandbags and stone-filled steel cages for emergencies. Additionally, annual drills for embankment breaches should have been conducted every June.”
“Yesterday, my friends’ circle was filled with videos of the authorities attempting to block the breach with truckloads of yellow sand. I watched as the breach expanded from 50 meters to 80 meters. I was puzzled by what new technology they were using.”
“Why didn’t they use stones to build the embankment before? Why did they opt for earthen embankments instead?”
“Why did the containment efforts fail? The vehicles should have been loaded with stones, then covered with netting. This is common knowledge in repairing breached embankments throughout history. If there were no stone sandbags available, what about using empty trucks? Was there no sense of on-site command?”
“I’ve never seen sand being used without being bagged for flood control before. I guess they couldn’t afford bags, but they could afford banners.”
The authorities had reinforced the main embankment of Dongting Lake, including the embankments in Huarong County and other locations before the flood season. Still, despite these efforts, the embankment on the scene collapsed, leading to speculation from netizens that corrupt officials may have been involved, questioning whether using river sand as a makeshift barrier was a result of natural disaster or human factors.