Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 930 - 621: Midnight Maneuvers (Part 2)

"The equipment can't go up the embankment; it can only operate on the water."

"Do we have enough stone materials?"

"The Command Center says we do, but it will take time."

"What time can they be transported here?"

"I don't know."

"What about the woven bags?"

"We have woven bags, they're being sent over. The county guarantees to deliver ten thousand by dawn, and the City Flood Control Command has allocated five thousand."

The biggest issue here in emergency response is the severe shortage of emergency supplies!

Hao Qiusheng took a deep breath and continued, "They indeed don't have piles of wood, luckily there are over five hundred left after the emergency repair at the gate, otherwise, they would have to cut trees and pull out utility poles."

Just then, the extended arm of Excavator No. 1 was replaced.

The main arm can't be left here; Excavator No. 1, using the newly replaced extended arm, assisted by Excavator No. 2, lifted the recently replaced main arm and slowly moved it onto the river embankment under the guidance of the safety officer.

At 2:27 in the deep night, the transport personnel and the equipment ferry returned under the escort of 001 and the supervision boat from the Jingzhou Port Supervision Bureau, slowly docking on the embankment and lowering the deck.

As soon as the deck was placed on the river embankment, several crew members ran up to fasten the cables.

The two small tugs following behind were also under the command of Manager Zou from the Port Authority's Floating Crane Pier and the Linghai Reserve Camp's Waterway Navigation and Mooring Safety Team Leader, Gu Pengfei, pulling tight the towing cables, constantly adjusting the stance to ensure the ferry remained as stable as possible.

The arm is a crucial part of the excavator; lifting it onto the ship must be done carefully, very carefully.

The No. 2 loader that returned with the ferry came over to assist, and over thirty people worked for nearly twenty minutes to safely transport the main arm of Excavator No. 1 onto the ferry.

The danger at the Old Temple Gate Embankment section was eliminated earlier; this is no longer the command sub-section of the Lingjiang County Anti-Flood Command on the Yangtze River embankment, Deputy County Magistrate Wang had left earlier, leaving only a few cadres and a dozen Basic Civilian Soldiers patrolling and managing hazards in the area.

Seeing that the last batch of personnel and equipment from the Linghai reinforcements was leaving, they ran from both the east and west sides to see them off.

"Han Camp Commander, thank you all. I didn't bring anything, just two packs of cigarettes on me, a little token, don't dislike it."

"Han Camp Commander, Lieutenant Hao, I am Wang Shuwen, Deputy Town Mayor of Old Temple Town. When the flood is over and you're not busy, we welcome you to visit us at Old Temple!"

The Basic Civilian Soldiers guarding the embankment are all local villagers; they have to bring their own meals from home.

One soldier brought a few boiled eggs from home before going up the embankment and quickly took them out to hand them to Han Yu when he saw them about to leave.

The Deputy Town Mayor smokes Red Plum, which isn't considered a very good cigarette.

Not knowing how long he would have to stay on the embankment, he handed his only two remaining packs of Red Plum to Hao Qiusheng.

Han Yu and Hao Qiusheng knew that refusing would upset them, so they accepted with tears in their eyes, waving goodbye to them.

...

Meanwhile, the river embankment at Yang Liu Village on the Yangtze River embankment in Angong County suddenly became brightly lit.

The Communication and Power Supply Unit's generator room had moved from the shore to a cargo ship that transported stone materials to Old Temple Gate last night.

The Linghai Reserve Camp had exerted tremendous effort to hoist the converted container generator room onto the ship.

After navigating for over an hour at night to get here, the group, assisted by the Party cadres and soldiers of Angong County, transported the equipment that could be moved ashore.

The "landing site" is about a kilometer from the piping hazard on the embankment. The reason for choosing to land here is, firstly, safety considerations. If the embankment section with the hazard collapses, people and equipment won't be swept away by the floodwaters.

Secondly, this part of the embankment is relatively wide and solid, allowing ships to dock, and for engineering machinery like excavators and loaders to disembark here.

Han Yu and Hao Qiusheng, following behind, would take at least an hour and a half to arrive.

Manager Zou Xiangyu of the Road and Bridge Company took the lead as the frontline commander, while Master Xu continued as the flood control expert from the Yangtze Flood Control Headquarters, communicating with Angong County leaders overseeing the emergency response on the river embankment.

The Chief Engineer of the Road and Bridge Company, Sun Youyi, led several team leaders to conduct on-site risk assessments, hurrying to study and develop a more specific emergency construction plan.

Yao Lirong, unable to manage engineering documents anymore, temporarily organized the personnel without emergency construction tasks into six patrolling hazard inspection groups according to the plan, conducting a comprehensive inspection within a kilometer radius of the "landing site" to ensure that there were no leaks or piping hazards, thus securing the "landing site" and the soon-to-be-built new camp area.

"Master Xu, Master Xu, this is Zou Xiangyu, where is the soil extraction point? I need to level the place quickly so that when the excavator arrives, soil sandbags can be collected; without sandbags, how can we protect against emergencies?"

"Received, received, County Magistrate Huang is arranging someone to take you there."

"Master Xu, please have the county leaders arrange three more guides. President Zhang and Secretary Qiu are not familiar with this place; they need two guides to take them to procure logistic supplies. Director Ge will have to go to the regiment with Master Dai after dawn; they also need a guide."

"Understood, arrangements will be made immediately."

"Wait, doesn't the county have woven bags? Have them quickly send the woven bags to the soil extraction point!"

"Manager Zou, the hazard here was just discovered in the first half of the night. Previously, all the available woven bags were used to resist the flood peak."

"Didn't the City Flood Control Command say they had supplies when they gave us the order?"

"They do, but they are trying to assemble them, which takes time, and transporting them here also takes time!"

"Have them hurry up."

"I understand."

The Jingjiang Embankment on the other side of the river is more important than this embankment because the Jianghan Plain lies beyond the main embankment.

The dry embankment on this side may not be as "important," but the severity of the disaster is much greater here than on the other side.

Several civil dikes on this side have already been abandoned!

Tens of thousands of people's homes were flooded; those who could rely on relatives went to them, while those who couldn't were either housed in local schools or warehouses, but more victims could only squeeze into tents or sheds on the embankment.

Faced with natural disasters, individual power is limited, and so is the power of local governments.

County leaders have done everything they could, and Master Xu didn't have the heart to rush them further. After mentioning the soil extraction point and guide matters with the county leaders, he took a flashlight to inspect the piping seepage situation below the embankment.

The best way to handle a piping hazard is to cut off the backflow, guide the pressure while reducing seepage pressure, preventing seepage from carrying away sediment. Simply blocking the seepage point is not only useless but also very dangerous.

With the guidance of the county's Water Resources Bureau engineer, he went to the paddy fields about thirty meters from the embankment and discovered that the county's emergency measures were relatively appropriate.

The village-level cadres organized villagers to carry sandbags from the embankment down to construct a circle around the six weeping holes, forming six differently sized wells. The well walls and the base were made compact and solid.

The wells were also layered according to the three-layer reverse filter requirement, placing straw as the filter material and installing several drainage pipes at the wellhead to draw away the seeped clear water, preventing overflow from collapsing the well walls.

"Master Xu, this is all we can do. We also want to block the leakage quickly, but we don't know where the leakage point is right now! Before you came, there was no electricity on the embankment; we were using just a few flashlights, couldn't even see the condition of the river surface clearly."

The old engineer from the County Water Resources Bureau had been "firefighting" all over since late June and hadn't been home, showered, changed clothes, or even brushed his teeth in over ten days.

With disheveled hair and a grimy appearance, he hardly looked like an engineer at first glance, more like a beggar.

Knowing his breath smelled bad, he covered his stubbly mouth, somberly saying, "The flood peak has passed, but the water level is still very high. The river water is so deep and flows so fast; if we just send someone down to feel around, who can guarantee they'll come back?"

Without sending someone down, how can they find the leakage point?

001 has an underwater surveying system, but it can only map the riverbed and the situation of the embankment below the water surface, and can't detect leakage points.

Master Xu was about to say that the City Flood Control Command had requested Naval divers to come and help when the old engineer choked up, saying, "Our Angong has suffered too much, we can't afford to lose more lives."

Master Xu was startled for a moment, unsure how to continue the conversation.