Thirty-two people have been confirmed dead and regional governments dispatched teams on Thursday to assess more than two billion yuan ($240-million) in damage after Typhoon Dujuan lashed coastal southern China, authorities said.
More than 1 000 people were injured and five remained missing early on Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Highways, power and communications lines, water supplies and crops also suffered serious damage from the most powerful storm to hit the economically booming Pearl River Delta since 1979, Xinhua said.
In the city of Shenzhen, the hardest-hit area, 20 people were killed and 98 were injured. Most of the city — China’s showcase economic development zone — lost power, the government said.
Dujuan weakened into a tropical storm and faded into the neighbouring region of Guangxi on Wednesday afternoon, hours after hitting the mainland.
More than 13 700 houses were reported damaged, Xinhua said.
Hong Kong was spared major damage by Dujuan on Tuesday. In Taiwan, the storm caused an estimated 1,35-billion New Taiwan dollars (US$39.5 million) in damage to the island’s agriculture. — Sapa-AP