China Floods Wash Feet of Buddha Statue for 1st Time in 70 Years

(Bloomberg) -- Water is crashing on the feet of a 1,000-year-old giant Buddha sculpture in Southwest China for the first time in decades, illustrating the extent of the unprecedented floods along the nation’s longest river.

Video footage of flooding at the world’s largest stone Buddhist statue in Sichuan province was shared widely on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, with a hashtag related to the event amassing over 91 million clicks. This is the first time the 70-meter tall sculpture has had the river’s water touch its feet since 1949, local media reported, citing the scenic spot’s management committee.

China has been battered by severe floods since June, affecting more than 63 million people and resulting in 178 billion yuan ($26 billion) worth of economic damage, according to a posting on the Ministry of Emergency Management’s website. The Yangtze River, China’s longest, has recorded four major floods so far this year, with the river’s water resources commission warning Sunday that the next one may be the worst yet.

“This wave of floods is massive and has high peaks,” the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources said in a post. “The flood control situation is quite severe.”

Sichuan province declared its highest emergency alert level in response to the floods on Tuesday, which has affected more than 60,000 residents, state media Xinhua reported.

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With assistance from Bloomberg