I grew up with awareness of flood dangers, and people's resilience

When the news of the dike breach broke, I was at my home in Changsha and immediately had an awful feeling of dread.

As someone born and raised in a township in Huarong, the Hunan province county affected by the breach, flood control and prevention is part of my childhood memories.

As a township government official, my father would disappear during summer to patrol and handle risks along a dike by a river near our home. The river flows into Dongting Lake. Often he would not return home, and he would eat and sleep at the dike during the most critical times.

In 1996 and 1998, when there had been major flooding in Dongting Lake and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, my mother told me she had packed all necessities and was ready to run toward the dike with me and my sister if a breach occurred.

My memory of the incident is vague, because we were only two and four years old at the time. But my mother often tells me that I gasped when she took me to look at the swollen river in 1998. The water was almost at the same level as the dike, and people could even touch it from the dike, my mother often recalls.

Fast forward 26 years, and I'm reliving those moments again, but this time as a reporter. At the weekend, I went to the office in Changsa and started to write stories about the latest breach. On Monday morning, I decided to go to Tuanzhou township in Huarong to cover news from the site.

The moment the car ascended to the dike next to Dongting Lake, not far from the breached section, the driver let out a gasp and told me that he was terrified because he had never seen the water level so high.

We arrived at the emergency response temporary headquarters around 4:30 pm on Monday, just in time for me to make the 5 pm news conference.

The dike area had been placed under traffic restrictions and only vehicles transporting rocks and emergency response personnel and equipment were allowed. I could see lines of trucks going in and out of the area. Ships were also transporting rocks as emergency workers raced against time to seal the dike.

After the news conference, I went to the dike to see if there were any people I could interview. The area was filled with trucks and rescuers, mostly members of People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police Force personnel and firefighters.

On Tuesday night, volunteers put on a show to cheer up flood-affected villagers who had been sent to a shelter in a school.

While they waited for the show to begin, flood and rescue efforts were the most-talked about topics. Villagers also chatted with each other, mostly about their children and grandchildren.

They took their phones out to record the show and take pictures, applauded and laughed, and seemed to forget their troubles for a moment.

Family and friends came to the school to visit them, and donations from different places poured in.

Yan Ruoyun, 68, asked me to take pictures for her with the people singing. She wanted to send the pictures to her children in other cities to reassure them she was safe.

Of course, I obliged. It surprised me that even after such a disaster, people still tried to enjoy their life and be optimistic. But it shouldn't have, after all, they have overcome floods before and they can again.