11. Poor Communications Transformed What Might Have Been a Minor Disaster Into a Major Catastrophe
A dam strong enough to withstand anything but a fluke thousand-year flood was sound in theory. As it turned out, however, Chinese planners had either miscalculated what a thousand-year flood was, or Mao Zedong’s China was simply unlucky. Either way, in early August 1975, Typhoon Nina struck, stalled over the Banqiao Dam area, and produced flooding double the anticipated thousand-year-level maximum. Even then, what came to be known as The Banqiao Dam Disaster could have been averted if not for incompetence and poor communications.
On August 6, 1975, with water levels rising in its reservoir because of Typhoon Nina, Banqiao’s officials requested authority to open the dam to relieve the pressure. They were turned down because of ongoing flooding downstream. In hindsight, that was not a good idea. The request was finally approved the following day, the 7th, but the telegram failed to reach Banqiao. In the early hours of August 8th, the water crested a foot above the dam’s wave protection wall, and it collapsed. The consequences were catastrophic.