THE RAIN KEPT coming. As the heavens poured out their wrath, the mortals below struggled to cope with their watery punishment. Hardest hit, perhaps by virtue of its sheer size, has been China.
Floods caused by monsoon rains are an annual occurrence in the Middle Kingdom, of course.
But this year, the Yangzi River, historically known for overflowing its banks, decided to show what it is really capable of. Experts declared the latest deluge to be the worst in recent memory - worse, in fact, than the Last Big One in 1954. As water levels hit critical heights, the authorities mobilized People's Liberation Army troops, ordinary citizens and even prisoners to evacuate residents and shore up the embankments. In Jiujiang, several riverboats were sunk in a desperate bid to plug a gap in the dikes. In Jianli, the authorities evacuated some 50,000 local residents before carrying out such an exercise.