An improvement in the weather allowed Chinese soldiers to blow up a leaking dike on a swollen branch of theYangtze River Wednesday, an army official says.
Explosives were used to demolish part of the Qingcao Township dike on the Dasha River in order to release rising floodwaters, China's official Xinhua news agency reports.
The operation had to be abandoned Tuesday after torrential waters snapped the blasting wires for the explosives.
Once water levels subsided soldiers were able to repair the wires and blast the dike, an Army official in charge of disaster relief for the city of Tongcheng says.
Days of torrential rains in Eastern China caused numerous leaks on dikes in the Dasha River.
More than 1,000 residents who live along the river had to be evacuated.
Economic loss from the rains in Anhui province are estimated at $265.5 million, disaster relief officials say.