Quake survivors flee amid flood threat

CHENGDU (China) (Agencies) - Thousands of earthquake survivors fled tent camps and villages across the ravaged landscape of southwestern China on Saturday after the government warned that several lakes and rivers were getting dangerously close to overflowing because landslides have blocked water flow, reports The New York Times.

The danger of flooding was so severe that some rescue workers had to abandon their efforts, at least temporarily, to find people buried beneath rubble in Beichuan, one of the hardest-hit counties. With the chances of finding survivors dwindling by the hour so long after the quake, such interruptions could doom the relatively few who could be expected to be alive beneath debris.

The greatest danger of flooding came from a lake in the far north of Sichuan Province that had already begun to overflow because of a blockage in the Qingzhu River, according to the Xinhua news agency, citing experts at the province's land management department.