China worries about flood threat in quake zone

Soldiers operated earth-moving equipment Tuesday as other lugged explosives deep into China's disaster zone, preparing to blow up earthquake debris blocking a river whose rising waters threatened already-devastated towns and villages.

Storms forecast for the region, meanwhile, added to concerns that rain would put more pressure on weakened dams and reservoirs and cause spillovers from new lakes that have built up behind debris from the earthquake.

The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected final toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said 65,080 people were confirmed killed, and 23,150 people remained missing.

Thousands of people had been evacuated from an area downstream from one of the new lakes that was created by a landslide near Beichuan, a town hit hard by the May 12 tremor that devastated Sichuan province.

Some 1,800 soldiers, each carrying 22 pounds of explosives, clambered up mountain paths to reach the new lake — already named Tangjiashan — with plans to blast through the debris and drain the water, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The troops didn't arrive until late Monday, and the blasting was not expected until later Tuesday at the earliest.