In the flooded areas of Lankao in Henan Province and Dongming in Shandong Province, more than 10, 000 officers and men from the Jinan Military Area Command and local militias struggled for nearly 10 days and nights to ensure the safety of the embankments of the Yellow River, during which officers and men also helped evacuate and relocate over 20,000 local residents.

　　In mid September, due to heavy rain in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, big flood occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. On September 18, 20 and 28, there were three bursts of embankment at the Lankao Section of the Yellow River with one burst as wide as 500 meters, some villages in Lankao County of Henan Province and Dongming County of Shandong Province were inundated and more than 100, 000 local people were stranded. Starting from September 21, more than 2,000 officers and men from the Jinan Military Area Command rushed to the disaster areas successively to conduct rescue operations. Some of them guarded and reinforced the embankments, others helped relocate the flood victims together with the officers and men from the Kaifeng Military Sub-command and the Heze Military Sub-command. At the same time, the military medical workers provided medical service for local residents and donated medicine to them.

　　The Caiji Control and Dredge Project in Lankao County was the key project for controlling the main riverbed and flood lands of the Yellow River. If the dike of the project were breached, the mainstream of the Yellow River would change its course and the flood would attack the villages. Yesterday afternoon, the reporter saw more than 600 officers and men of a group army were dumping huge stones into the river to reinforce the embankment, and a pontoon bridge regiment was constructing a temporary pier, more than 300 militiamen from the People's Armed Forces Department of Lankao County were doing rush repair on a temporary road for delivering materials to reinforce the dike.

　　It is said that the PLA soldiers have been struggling for over 10 days on the embankments. Presently, the PLA soldiers and local militiamen are still busy evacuating flood victims while making material and technical preparations for stemming the bursts.

　　By Ou Shijin and Meng Bin

　　(October 15, PLA Daily)