Mudslides and flood threaten to wipe out Beichuan

The ongoing mudslides and an anticipated flood could do what the Sichuan earthquake couldn't - wipe out Beichuan from the face of the earth.

As a result of heavy rains and incessant mudslides, the plan to rebuild quake-devastated Beichuan county in northern Sichuan province as an earthquake museum has been put on hold, a local official said.

Sitting on a cleft in the mountains, the ruins of the county flattened by the May 12 earthquake had originally been planned to be preserved as a memorial to more than 10,000 people who died there. But that seems increasingly unlikely as a large part of the county is now buried under the mudslides caused by unprecedented downpour since last Wednesday.