国内英语新闻:Flood peak safely passes China's Three Gorges Dam, shipping service still halted

WUHAN, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- This year's second largest flood has crested and safely passed the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze, China's longest river, on Tuesday, forcing engineers to close the locks at the dam.

The ship locks have been closed since 8 p.m. Monday and more than 100 ships have been detained at the site, but all are in good order. The maritime authority is now making efforts to avoid congestion.

The ship locks are supposed to open after water flowing into the reservoir falls to 45,000 cubic meters per second.

Water flowing into the reservoir of the dam reached 56,000 cubic meters per second at 2 p.m., the highest since the flood earlier peaked at 70,000 cubic meters per second on July 20, the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said in a statement.

The water flow fell to 53,000 cubic meters per second at 8 p.m.

It said the dam took the edge off the fierce flow by holding back about 31,000 cubic meters of flood water per second and discharging the rest.

The water level in the dam was 154.3 meters at 8 p.m., an increase of more than 4 meters in 24 hours and well above the 145-meter flood alarm level, the statement said.