By Zhao Guotao, Zhao Wanshu
ZHENGZHOU, July 22 -- Following the important instructions by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the overall deployments of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), the PLA Central Theater Command had dispatched more than 8,800 troops, including troops from the PLA and the PAP units stationed in Henan Province, along with 485 vehicles and vessels, to engage in disaster relief in over 30 places of Henan in parallel as of 12:00 a.m. on July 22, making utmost efforts to protect local people's life and property safety.
Seventy-five service members assigned to an engineering chemical defense brigade under the PLA Central Theater Command had successfully exploded the dam and shunted the flood at Yichuan County and then promptly joined other relief operations.
More than 80 soldiers of a PLA Air Force brigade rushed to Zhengzhou overnight to save the trapped residents and block the dams.
A brigade of the airborne troops dispatched about 650 members to the breach section of Jialu River to reinforce the dam and block the overflow.
The PLA Zhengzhou Joint Logistic Support Center sent more than 170 service members in batches to repair dams and evacuate residents in dangerous areas such as Guancheng District and Guojiaju Reservoir, and sent a medical team to provide itinerant health care.
More than 430 service members from the PLA Army Academy of Artillery and Air Defense and the PLA Information Engineering University, along with more than 280 peers from the People's Armed Police (PAP) Henan Contingent, stayed at Changzhuang Reservoir to block the piping.
The PLA Henan Provincial Military Command mobilized over 2,000 militiamen to dredge waterways, evacuate residents, take patrols and reinforce dams at around 10 dangerous areas in cities of Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Xuchang and Jiaozuo.
The PLA Central Theater Command has also used reconnaissance satellites and planes to monitor the situation in flood-hit areas. It is learned that the PAP forces have set up a video commanding system, and the joint operations command of the PLA Central Theater Command will continue to dispatch disaster relief forces according to the situation.
