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It is a simple strand of red plastic hanging between two trees, but for residents of this battered town, it is the line between life and potential death. On one side are 11,000 residents who have been huddling under plastic sheets since the May 12 earthquake devastated northern Sichuan Province. On the other is a lush plain of farmland and homes that government officials say will be washed away should a swollen reservoir of trapped river water break through the wall of rock, dirt and trees that holds it in place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Faced with the prospect of massive flooding from a blocked river in the highlands of Sichuan Province, the authorities have announced plans to evacuate more than a million people should the rock-and-mud embankment give way, a threat that grew more urgent on Wednesday. The herculean task of moving so many people, officials said, would have to be accomplished within four hours, the time it would take for the wall of water to inundate scores of cities and rural villages that are already grappling with the devastation caused by the May 12 earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]