Over 8,000 boats stranded on China river

Over 8,000 boats stranded on China river: state media


8.000 boats? That is a whole lot of boats.
and 'the river that carries 80 percent of coal used to generate electricity in Zhejiang' , we better hope for their sake that this river dont dry out, cause some one is going to be without electricity.....

TerraDaily
Beijing (AFP) Aug 18, 2009
More than 8,000 cargo ships and boats were stuck on a river in east China in the worst bottleneck in a decade, after water levels rose to a record high due to Typhoon Morakot, state media said Tuesday.
The boat traffic jam on the river that links cities in Zhejiang province to Shanghai -- the world's busiest port by total cargo volume -- was 40 kilometres (25 miles) long, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua quoted Zhou Shiquan of the ports and shipping administration in Huzhou city in Zhejiang as saying the river was closed to ships for nearly two weeks as water levels rose, reaching a record high of 5.4 metres (17.7 feet).

Levels had now started to subside on the river that carries 80 percent of coal used to generate electricity in Zhejiang, Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu province.

Typhoon Morakot slammed into China 10 days ago, sweeping through the nation's eastern regions -- including Zhejiang and Shanghai -- after killing at least 128 people in Taiwan, where it caused the worst flooding in 50 years.

Ok, I am at a loss on this bottleneck - if the water levels rose, how did that create a bottleneck, since the path of normal travel in the water is still there?

Seems that a DROP in water levels would cause a bottleneck, not a rise.

Can sumun lernt me sumpin?

reply to post by Misfit


I was having the same oppinion but i guess the problem was created when the water levels came down and ships outside the river bed were traped propably causing further problems such as a bottleneck....
I cannot be sure of my theory though. Just speculating.

reply to post by Misfit


I dont know, but surly there was a bottleneck . Haha .
maybe a bridge got too low due to the raising of the water level.. ?

Originally posted by GEORGETHEGREEK
reply to post by Misfit

 

I was having the same oppinion but i guess the problem was created when the water levels came down and ships outside the river bed were traped propably causing further problems such as a bottleneck....
I cannot be sure of my theory though. Just speculating.

Yea, without a map over this area, it aint that easy to see where there could be a bottle neck..

But your Theory sounds very plausable...

Originally posted by ChemBreather

maybe a bridge got too low due to the raising of the water level.. ?

Yeah, that one makes sense to me, as on Google Earth I do see several briges across the river between these two locations. The time of two weeks closure would lead to the bottleneck.

Thanks

reply to post by Misfit


Just ask ! Krmt
But, as you see in the article, 80% of the traffic on that river is for transporting coal for electricity production, if that river were to become unusable, alot of people would be without power...