On the phone, Gu Ji could clearly hear the roaring background noise, like raging floodwaters mixed with dam stones rushing down the mountain stream, a surging, turbulent roar.
His blood was rushing to his head, making it buzz, and he subconsciously murmured.
"Quick, life jackets."
"Vidi, what did you say, is it the dam over there..."
Fatima was slightly startled, vaguely sensing that sothing bad had happened.
Gu Ji’s eyes, like scattered pupils, stared straight ahead, and only after hearing the word "dam" did a sudden gleam appear in them.
"Life jackets! Everyone put on life jackets imdiately! Speed up the evacuation! The dam has breached!!"
"What!?"
With those words, everyone on the military vehicle’s faces changed drastically. Marlo quickly pressed the button on his headset:
"Attention, First Battalion, the dam has breached! Speed up the convoy’s movent! Speed up, everyone put on life jackets!"
"Secretary Lanate, the dam has breached..."
"Boat team, speed up! The dam has breached!"
"Everyone run! Run! Run!!"
In an instant, personnel from the military, police, disaster response units, and various sectors almost simultaneously received the calls. One command after another, one warning after another, each more urgent than the last, spread quickly across the streets like ignited gunpowder, sweeping through everyone!
"Vidi! What should we do now, there’s no ti to evacuate all these people!"
"Floodwaters generally flow at 20-30 ters per second, the distance from Farakka Dam to Calcutta city center is nearly a hundred kiloters. We have more than 40 minutes of response ti left, enough ti to evacuate two groups to safety zones. To prevent accidents, have the military send more helicopters to deliver rescue supplies imdiately, life jackets, life buoys, anything that can float, anything that can save lives!"
Faced with Fatima’s inquiry in the urgency of the situation, Gu Ji didn’t have a better solution.
One person alone simply couldn’t fight against a natural disaster. Managing to transfer all those millions of people to a relatively safe area before the breach was his ultimate goal.
Thankfully, he had relied on his experience to decisively halt the demolition plan of the Farakka Dam.
The dam breach would take four and a half hours to occur, and the military’s engineering demolition would also take about the sa ti. The final result would either be that the dam breached before the detonation button was pressed, or the demolition breach would trigger the breach prematurely.
Both would result in massive casualties, and even when dealing with the aftermath, Calcutta’s residents would bla them.
"Increase speed! Quick! Quick!"
Marlo urged the driver to speed up, changing out of his military bulletproof vest into an orange reflective rescue vest.
The driver, sweating profusely from anxiety, was afraid of being swept away by the flood on the way.
However, the water on the streets had already far surpassed a ter; let’s not ntion that the vehicle’s head encountered too much resistance, making it hard to speed up. Even if they could drive fast, the engine soaking in water could lead to system failures. They had already lost count of the number of stalled cars.
Fortunately, they reached the safety zone near the midtown in just twenty minutes.
The firefighters at Matan Park were still reinforcing the flood levee.
"No, the park is already full!"
"Mr. Vidhi, please stop sending people over. People inside the park are all complaining!"
Gu Ji was directing firefighters to move fire barrels aside to allow refugees from the north area to enter, but unexpectedly, two city officials in suits ca, deflecting on the left and refusing on the right, using the populace as their shield.
Having experienced so many crises and disasters, there was no way he would be easily hindered by so words from these people.
With a fierce gaze, Gu Ji swept over the two governnt officials. "Is complaining more important than lives? I don’t care how you do it, but you must let people in. Otherwise, I’ll have the military take over, and if anyone complains, have them co directly to !"
Imdiately, Marlo stepped forward, raising the barrel of his AK-203.
The two officials didn’t dare to contend with the military and had the firefighters remove the barrels to let people in.
"Fatima, Marlo, you both stay here with the soldiers to coordinate the refugee transfer and handling."
"Vidi, what are you going to do!"
"I still have to transfer the remaining people from the rear. There’s less than twenty minutes before the flood hits, and cars are now useless, we can only rely on the rescue boats of the boat unit!"
Gu Ji gently pushed away Fatima’s grip on his wrist.
She intended to say sothing more, but as things were, Fatima didn’t have a better solution. Even if she insisted on following, she couldn’t help much. At least Gu Ji was more experienced in water rescues, so it might be better to stay and clear more space in the safe zone for him.
Back on the boat.
Pradan raised his eyebrows slightly, a complex expression on his face, asking.
"You actually didn’t have to co, aren’t you afraid of dying?"
"If I was truly afraid of dying, I wouldn’t have boarded that train in Assam."
Gu Ji took out a bottle of mineral water from his backpack and gulped it down.
The two exchanged a glance, and couldn’t help but smile wryly.
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