Chapter 350: Chapter 172: Dam Crisis (Part 2)

Thanks to the consistent investment in the natural disaster system and the enhancement of Gu Ji’s reaction and crisis management mindset, within a few breaths, he had an idea in mind, eyes sharpening, “Fatima, call the chief secretary of that state immediately, and have him tell the riot police to evacuate all nearby villagers as soon as possible! Hurry!”

“Ah, okay!”

Fatima hurriedly pulled out her phone from her pocket, and after Gu Ji finished speaking, he turned and retraced his steps.

He ran back to the control center without stopping.

“Marlo, the body of the Farakka Dam has already shown damage, it could collapse at any time, cancel the explosion plan, and have a helicopter take us to Calcutta immediately!!”

“What!?”

Marlo’s face fell instantly, tightening like a layer of glue, but his long military training forced him to calm down, decisively press the intercom button to order: “Soldiers of groups A and B, listen up, halt operations, immediately return the equipment and explosives to the vehicles, fast! Colonel…”

While he was reporting to Colonel Swaraj, Gu Ji ran down the mountain again.

The villagers causing trouble inside the dam were confused, some couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but some sharp-eared individuals heard the words “dam collapse,” their expressions fluctuating, clearly somewhat panicked.

The villagers at the foot of the mountain were just like them.

Lanate, the chief secretary wearing a purple turban, stopped Gu Ji head-on, urgently saying:

“Mr. Vidhi, it’s too difficult to evacuate, these villagers are all clamoring to go in, vowing to stop us from blowing up the dam, they refuse to leave no matter what!”

“Did you tell them we are canceling the explosion and that the dam is about to collapse?”

“I’ve told them, but they just won’t listen, saying we’re trying to deceive them!!”

“Then let those government officials and police from the Midnapore Special Zone, and those landlords inside, let them see the damaged part of the dam with their own eyes, it’s on the east side of the dam, I’m sure they don’t have the guts to stay here, once the instigators run, the other villagers will definitely follow!”

In this world, there aren’t that many brave warriors, besides those death squads controlled by drugs under Dahai in the underground skyscraper checkpoint, Gu Ji had never seen anyone truly unafraid of death.

So he deeply understood the “herd effect,” once the leader runs, panic quickly spreads through the crowd.

Lanate understood tacitly.

But just as he was about to act accordingly, Gu Ji pulled him back, “Leave it to the riot police to do this, keep one unit for evacuation, and send the rest of the troops to Calcutta immediately, Chief Secretary, please, you have to come with us on the helicopter!”

“Once the dam breaches, there’s a very high possibility it could trigger a downstream flood cascading breach, the zone has a total population of only 30 million across four counties, while Calcutta alone has over 16 million people with a very high population density, we must evacuate everyone in town to safety before the flood breaks out!”

“Evacuate 15 million people?!”

Lanate’s eyes almost popped out hearing this number, as it was virtually impossible.

By this time, Marlo had driven the pickup down from the mountain.

“We’ll talk on the way!” Gu Ji pulled him toward the helicopter landing spot.

Five minutes later, with the help of firefighters and riot police, all military explosives and equipment were transported to the transport aircraft cabin, and after everyone boarded, the pilot pushed the throttle lever again.

Two Mi-17/171 helicopters rose slowly against the rain waves, heading south to Calcutta.

All along the way, due to the strong wind and rain brought by the tropical storm, the helicopter was in a constant state of turbulence, Lanate, who had never flown in a military helicopter, vomited on the spot.

At this point, a warning came from the cabin pilot:

“Report! There’s stormy weather ahead, wind speed exceeds 19.2 meters/second, there might be turbulence, everyone must sit tight!”

Rumble——!

Unexpectedly, right after the reminder, the fuselage shook violently, with supplies in the cabin hitting the iron walls, causing a loud noise, Lanate turned pale with fear, eyes shut tight.

Not only him, even the soldiers in the cabin, as well as Gu Ji and others, all looked severe.

After all, they were flying in stormy weather. According to the Mi-17 military flight manual, the minimum visibility for night flights must not be lower than 1500 meters, and for daytime, not below 800 meters, but Gu Ji estimated the current visibility outside was only a few hundred meters.

So they were basically flying on a knife edge, with the risk of crashing at any moment.

But to shorten the travel time, Gu Ji had to take this risk.

From East Midnapore District to Calcutta was at least over a hundred kilometers away; driving would take at least an hour, but with a helicopter, it would only take fifteen minutes.

Given the current situation where the dam could breach at any moment, every second was precious to him.

“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz…”

With the violent shaking of the fuselage, Fatima suddenly heard an alarm from the cockpit, grasping Gu Ji’s sleeve nervously, “Are we going to be okay?”

“Don’t worry, it will be dawn soon.”

Gu Ji raised his wrist for a glance, although he was also nervous, as one of the emergency commanders, he had to appear calm and composed, otherwise, if he was scared too, the whole team would fall apart immediately.

Thankfully, his luck was good this round.

Or rather, the mobile weather app’s sunrise time was very accurate, gradually, through the cockpit windshield, they saw a fish-belly white rising in the eastern sky, and the land was gradually lighting up, though the sky was still gloomy, raining heavily, at least it wasn’t as pitch black as before, like being swallowed by demons.

It was then that Fatima noticed Gu Ji’s wristwatch.

It turned out it was already six twenty in the morning.

From planning early yesterday, to the prime minister’s review, to meeting with the special border force and executing the demolition task, they had unknowingly worked for a full day and night!

During this time, both of them were always on edge, hence only now did they feel the fatigue.

“Calcutta is right ahead!”

The pilot picked up the intercom, starting communication with Calcutta’s airport control tower.

Calcutta is the capital city of India’s West Bengal, located on the east bank of the Hugli River, is a very large city, it’s India’s third most densely populated urban area, also the main commercial, cultural, and educational center in eastern India, and one of India’s oldest ports.

This is also why Gu Ji, upon learning of the dam breach, came directly here.

A riverside city, high population density.

Once the flood broke out, it would be the most severely affected area!

Fortunately, compared to the previous Assam state towns, as India’s third-largest city, Calcutta’s urban construction closely follows India’s capital, New Delhi, and Mumbai, besides the exotic historical architecture, slums, and parks, there are also many modern skyscrapers in town, conveying a peculiar feeling of the mix of poverty and broken jewels from England’s Raj era, vast gardens, and history schools.

While flying across the city, Gu Ji noted down these building positions one by one, also pulling out his phone with the satellite map, marking based on the riverbank distance and the terrain heights.

He also noticed Calcutta’s strong religious atmosphere, in parks, roadsides, squares, residential streets, everywhere there were Hindu statues, altars.

Many early-rising local Indian devotees were praying in the heavy rain.

No doubt, in the face of impending disaster, such an act for peace was also very reasonable, yet filled with irony, as placing the hope of self-rescue on gods seemed so elusive.

Ta-da-da-da…

Soon, the helicopter landed at Calcutta International Airport.

Because Calcutta was one of the first regions hit by the tropical storm, now even the relatively high-altitude airport had half a finger’s depth of water, the airport had been closed due to heavy rain, with lots of high-end black cars waiting around, exactly the officials from the government of West Bengal.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep