UCD Fight against Flood Together with Anqing People

Since June 28th, several rounds of heavy rainfall have made Anqing suffer a major flood disaster. Reservoirs of above medium size all have reached their highest storage level throughout the city; many areas face great danger; some places are subject to traffic disruption. Anqing Flood Control Headquarters urged various localities and departments to take flood control as the core task overriding anything else. All walks of society are extensively mobilized to go all out, make concerted efforts, persevere, and resolutely win the fight of flood control and disaster relief, ensuring the safety of people's lives and property. As required by Anqing Flood Control Headquarters and Anqing Key Project Bureau, Anqing Project Company had immediately set up a flood control leading group. The leading group is headed by the General Manager Xia Xiujiang, while engineering department is responsible for organizing and implementing specific work. Moreover, rescue equipment, material supplies and rescue commando of 40 people are also organized for preparation of disaster self-help, waiting for the rescue instruction at a higher level.

Fight against flood at pump stations, self-rescue and disaster mitigation

Before dawn of June 28th, dump heavy rain caused disaster at the under crossing section of Hefei-Anqing highway, as the project of Anqing outer ring north road, and also the disaster at pump stations. Disaster is the order. At 8am, Pan Biao, Chief Engineer of Project Company, Li Guangjiang, head of Engineering Department and Liu Jun, manager of Technology Department  led the project company personnel, rushed to the site of disaster and organized self-rescue. Heavy rain fell continuously, and water level on under crossing section of the highway had risen to 1.5 meters. Lower part of pump station also faced the constant rise of water level. If pump equipment was not quickly started to discharge the accumulated water, the road would be soaked in water for long. This could greatly reduce the road service performance and service life. Once water flooded into pump station, equipment with the value of millions Yuan would be drown to cause serious losses. The situation was very urgent. Measures must be taken as soon as possible, otherwise the consequences could be disastrous.

Cheng Qiling, deputy director of Anqing Key Project Bureau, and Chen Jinmiao, on-site office responsible person carried out detailed study to the situation. Through coordination by Key Project Bureau, leaders of Anqing Electric Power Bureau leadership also came to flood scene. The study demonstrated that it was impossible to use external access power. An external generator group could only be transported to start pump station. This was because minimum horsepower generator starting pump station needed to reach 400KV, but then Anqing did not have any generator with so high horsepower. Then the decision was made to assign two teams: one team seeking for generator units; another team was distracted urgently from the Sixth Division to support the First Division for building flood wall and blocking flood.

The project company transferred 40 people urgently from the Sixth Division, and a large hoisting machine from the Second Division to support the First division for danger alleviation. Personnel of the First and Sixth divisions were quickly in place, filled sandbags, and built flood walls outside equipment cable ditch. Started at 9:30am, only an hour and a half was spent to build a flood control wall of 1.2 meters high and 60 meters long. The flood was temporarily kept outside the pump station. Hoisting machine also lifted four pieces of pump pressure covers to pump station. As pressure cover was prepared in time, this ensured pump station worked soon after the arrival of power generator units.

Good news also came from the personnel looking for generator units. They found an equipment leasing company in Hefei. Through telephone contact, leasing company immediately delivered a 500KV power generator unit to Anqing in only 3 hours on such a heavy rainy day. At 12:40 of the noon, equipment was delivered to the flood area. On-site technicians immediately started installation and debugging, and finished it at 5:48pm. The pump station started to work. At 10 o'clock in the evening water level at pump station reduced to below the level of security, indicating a rescue success. This ensured the equipment safety, road quality and performance, and normal construction of the project, greatly reducing the loss.

The fight against flood and self-rescue is also a big examination for the emergency response capacity of Anqing Project Company. Such experience indicates its contingency plan feasible, while self-rescue and danger relief techniques are effective to deal with various disasters. Through this fight against flood and self-rescue, Project Company has further improved its quick response, emergency rescue and collaboration competences, all-roundly enhancing the ability to resist major accidents and disasters. Once disaster accident occurs again, Project Company can organize effectively, respond quickly, operate efficiently, keep calm in chaos, and thus reduce the damage to maximum degree.

People of Beijing UCD are in service wherever needed

Commanded by Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban- Rural Development at 11pm of July 5th, Anqing Project Company organized rescue commando of 30 people and gathered urgently at Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban- Rural Development at 5am of July 6th. They were all sent to Zongnan Village of Yingjiang District for flood fight and danger relief. This was the third large-scale campaign of flood fight, subsequent to Lianhu drainage on July 2nd and Qianjiang Village on July 4th. As requested by Municipal Commission, on July 6th UCD commando of 34 people arrived at the designated location, and met other flood prevention workers before rushing to Zongnan Village through four buses. Zongnan Village is a low lying region, located between the Yangtze River and Pogang Lake, adjacent to Pogang Lake. Pogang Lake is the largest lake in the territory of Anqing, where days of heavy rain had made the Pogang lake water overflow dams and flooded to Zongnan Village. The situation was very dangerous. Once dam broke, the life and property of nearly ten thousand people of four villages inside the embankment would be subject to a serious threat. Flood fight commando of Beijing UCD undertakes the task of rescuing the most dangerous section covering 300 meters. They faced the spillover of the lake, overlooked danger and immediately devoted to tense rescue. Starting to fight at 7am, all the combatants could not even attend to a sip of water, stayed in rain and struggled hard. Due to emergent rescue mission, some rescue workers did not have breakfast, kept hungry stomach to persevere in the fight. At 9 o'clock in the morning, Anqing Project Company leadership arranged the supplies of bread, milk and ham. In order to block flood as soon as possible, fighters worked while eating. Finally at 10am, the overflow of the lake was blocked in the lake. Then the rescue workers struggled for consecutive 8 hours. Until 3pm, they successfully finished the mission of rescuing the embankment at the requirements of Municipal Flood Control Headquarters. During the fight against flood, all combatants were not afraid of hardship or tiredness. They bravely fought in the pouring rain to cumulatively piled 3400 sandbags, 100 bags per person on average. Local villagers were deeply moved, initiatively vacated all houses available, so that rescue personnel would not eat in the rain. A vanguard and exemplary role of leading cadres of the Party and the old comrades leading role were rather prominent. Zhang Wanchen and Chi Ligang Communist party members of Project Company took the lead. In particular, though very tired, Li Guangjiang, Communist party member and manager of Engineering Department led consecutive flood fights. A supervision meeting was held during the fight, so all people advised him to have a rest. But he returned to the flood area instantly after the meeting. He claimed that he was the guider and a Communist party member. It was the moment to address the needs of the Party and people, so he should never stepped back. As the project of the Third Division has been drawing to a close, there were not many workers remained. In order to avoid affecting the project construction and finish flood rescue, except for a managerial staff, all other ten managers of the division joined in flood rescue. among whom, Party member and deputy manager Chen Qiang and deputy manager Ma Fengyang are both in their fifties. All people advised them to work less, but they were still capable as in the past. Their achievements were equal to young people. Motivated and pulled by them, the whole team completed the task in a fast and nice manner. They not only finished their own task ahead of time, but also took the initiative to help those units that had not completed the task. Then the flood control task was completed successfully, and was praised highly by Anqing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

A communist is a banner, and the banner is expected to flow in the wind. In the frontier of flood control and drainage, every communist member and cadre of Beijing UCD has given full play to their exemplary and vanguard roles. Wherever needed, they are courageously in fight. They not only reflect the "Iron Army" spirit of Beijing UCD, but also symbolize the principle and fine tradition of the company. As long as people of disaster area are in need, we will be there to bear the social responsibility of a state-owned enterprise, embodying the morality of boundless love.