Pat Dollard | Young Americans

By Tian Ying and Paul Tighe - (Bloomberg)

China sent troops and police to try to prevent floods threatening more than 700,000 survivors of the country’s deadliest earthquake in 32 years in Sichuan province, as weather forecasters said thunderstorms were on the way.

Military engineers carrying dynamite arrived early today at the site of a lake created by landslides that lies 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from Tangjiashan in Beichuan County, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Helicopters also dropped men and equipment, it said.

The lake is one of 34 in Sichuan posing a danger to people, E. Jingping, deputy minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, said yesterday. While the lakes are “under control,” there is a high danger from flooding, he said.

The strongest aftershock since the May 12 quake struck the region yesterday, killing eight people. The quake two weeks ago killed 65,080 people and left 23,150 missing, the government said today. The death toll may rise to more than 80,000, Premier Wen Jiabao said two days ago, as he toured the area with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Evacuation plans have been prepared for communities near 19 lakes, E. Jingping said. Sixty-nine reservoirs are in “immediate” danger of bursting and measures, such as draining the worst-damaged constructions, are being taken.

Dangerous Levels

Tangjiashan is the most dangerous of the lakes because its water level rose almost 2 meters on May 24. Soldiers will try to blast its landslide barrier away to drain the water, Xinhua cited an unidentified army officer as saying.

Areas around the disaster zone may have thunderstorms and strong winds today and tomorrow, according to the China Meteorological Administration’s forecast today. Thunderstorms may increase the risk of flooding on rivers that have been blocked by landslides, it said.

Yesterday’s 6.4 magnitude temblor jolted Qingchuan county in Sichuan, according to the China National Seismic Network. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.

More than 900 people were injured and about 270,000 houses destroyed or damaged, adding to the more than 4.7 million leveled earlier this month in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

The government earlier called for 3.3 million tents and said it will build 1.5 million temporary houses for quake survivors.

Man Rescued

An 80-year-old disabled man was rescued alive in Mianzhu city of Sichuan, 11 days after the May 12 earthquake, the China News Agency reported yesterday.

A giant panda named Xi Xi was captured today in woods near the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong, Xinhua said. Five of six pandas that disappeared from the center after the quake have been found.

The 7.9-magnitude temblor two weeks ago left more than 5 million homeless. President Hu Jintao ordered domestic manufacturers to make more tents as the relief effort, which rescued almost 84,000 people from the rubble of collapsed buildings, now focuses on housing, feeding survivors and preventing the spread of disease.

The earthquake devastated highways and roads throughout Sichuan, causing 47.8 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) of damage and slowing relief efforts, Xinhua reported, citing the province’s transportation department.

The government is setting up a 70 billion yuan fund to pay for reconstruction, and government departments have been told to cut spending by 5 percent to divert funds for rebuilding. Disaster-relief allocations reached 15 billion yuan yesterday.

The May 12 earthquake was the most powerful to hit China, the world’s most populous country, since a magnitude 8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526 people. A 7.5 magnitude temblor in Tangshan in the northeast killed 250,000 in 1976, according to the USGS. China’s seismology department said the Sichuan quake had a magnitude of 8.