Page "Banqiao Dam" Paragraph 7

Officially, the dam failure was a natural as opposed to man-made disaster, with government sources placing an emphasis on the amount of rainfall as opposed to poor engineering and construction.

The People's Daily has maintained that the dam was designed to survive a once-in-1000-years flood ( 300 mm of rainfall per day ) but a once-in-2000-years flood occurred in August 1975, following the collision of Super Typhoon Nina and a cold front.

More than a year's rain fell in 24 hours ( new records were set, at 189. 5 mm rainfall per hour and 1060 mm per day, exceeding the average annual precipitation of about 800 mm ), which weather forecasts failed to predict.

China Central Television reported that the typhoon disappeared from radar as it degraded.

According to Xinhua ,< ref >< the forecast was for rainfall of 100 mm by the Beijing-based Central Meteorological Observatory.