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Asia Minute: El Nino Bakes Hawai‘i; Floods China

Perfect Zero / Flickr
Perfect Zero / Flickr

The National Weather Service says drought conditions on Hawai‘i Island and Maui are likely to continue during the summer, and may spread elsewhere across the islands. Forecasters blame a strong El Nino—which is likely to have a different impact in China. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

Water levels are already high along parts of Asia’s longest river…and government officials are warning of spring floods that could be “catastrophic.” 

The Yangtze River stretches for nearly four-thousand miles across a wide part of China’s mid-section.  Only the Nile and the Amazon are longer.  The Yangtze’s waters start to gather from glaciers in Qinghai in China’s west…then grow in size…and the river twists and turns before flowing into the East China Sea at Shanghai. 

The Yangtze is a storied part of China—featured in history, legends and art for thousands of years.  It can also be deadly.

The South China Morning Post says flooding in 1998 along the river and its tributaries killed more than 3,000 people.  The official Xinhua news agency quotes China’s general secretary of flood prevention and drought relief as saying flooding will be extreme this spring and summer—possibly as severe as 1998.  By next month, rainfall along the Yangtze is forecast to be as much as fifty-percent more than normal…with that growing to 80% in some sections by the summer.   Beyond the threat to life and property…crops are also vulnerable—including cotton, and especially rice.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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