BEIJING - The death toll in coastal China from Typhoon
Saomai jumped to at least 73 on Friday, with three others missing, as the most
powerful storm to strike the country in five decades churned across the
southeast, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Motorcycles and vehicles are blown down in
Fuding County, east China's Fujian Province as typhoon Saomai, the
strongest to strike China in 50 years, made landfall in east China
lashing the region with winds and downpours.
[Xinhua] |
Authorities had evacuated more than 1.5 million people from flood-prone areas
before storm hit land Thursday evening, wrecking houses and capsizing ships.
Most of the deaths occurred in Zhejiang province, where
Saomai made landfall, Xinhua said.
The bodies of 43 people, including eight children, were discovered in
Zhejiang's Cangnan county amid the debris of collapsed houses on Friday morning,
Xinhua said.
Another 28 people were killed and three were missing in other parts of
Zhejiang, Xinhua said, but did not give details.
The government earlier reported two deaths in Fuding, a
city in neighboring Fujian province. Xinhua didn't say how the latest
deaths occurred, but said 7,300 homes were destroyed.
|
Two local residents manage their way amid
heavy rains in Fuding County, east China's Fujian Province Thursday,
August 10, 2006, as typhoon Saomai, the strongest typhoon in 50 years,
made landfall in east China. [Xinhua]
|
Damage was expected to be widespread in areas that were still recovering from
Tropical Storm Bilis, which claimed more than 600 lives last month.
Saomai had winds of up to 216 kph (135 mph), according to Chinese
forecasters. The Zhejiang provincial weather bureau said it was the most
powerful storm to hit China since at least 1949.
Saomai, dubbed a "super typhoon" by Chinese forecasters due to its huge size
and high wind speeds, was the eighth major storm of this year's unusually
violent typhoon season.
It killed at least two people in the Philippines earlier in the week and
dumped rain on Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds
of flights.
Eight Taiwanese sailors were missing late Thursday after two ships capsized
in a harbor in Fujian, while four Chinese were missing after their ship struck a
reef, according to Xinhua.
Saomai is the Vietnamese name for the planet Venus.
