Fourteen people died and 15 were missing on Friday after Typhoon Talim’s whipping rain and winds walloped China’s east coast and Taiwan, causing widespread damage.
Nine people were buried alive and another 15 were unaccounted for after a powerful mudslide crushed their homes in a township of the prosperous eastern city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, a city foreign affairs official said.
”We are going to the scene of the accident, but we know that nine died and 15 are missing,” said the official, adding that it would be difficult to reach the disaster zone as many roads were badly damaged.
”The rain was extremely heavy and caused several landslides,” he said.
A father and son were killed when their house collapsed in the Chinese province of Fujian, according to Xinhua news agency. In Taiwan, three died when the storm churned across the island, said the National Fire Agency, which coordinates relief efforts.
At least 59 were injured in Taiwan.
Fujian bore the brunt of Talim’s might in China, as it plowed into Quanzhou and Putian cities late on Thursday, felling trees and power lines and forcing the evacuation of more than 900 000 people across the region.
It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm as it blows its way inland, and hundreds of thousands of people were returning home to mop up, meteorological officials said.
Up to 40 people were seriously injured and damage was heavy.
Government officials in Fujian estimated $458-million-worth of wreckage province-wide that included about 7 300 destroyed homes, and 2,54-million hectares of farmland inundated with water.
Chinese authorities moved 629 000 people to safety in Fujian and another 291 000 from neighbouring Zhejiang, according to local officials, while about 30 000 fishing vessels were forced to return to harbour.
Most flights from Fujian’s capital, Fuzhou, were cancelled on Thursday and schools province-wide have been ordered to close until Monday. Many airports and highways remained shut on Friday and ferry services suspended.
One official from the flood control office in Xiamen said streets were flooded in the city port, one of China’s largest.
”Until midnight there was no big damage, but the rain has become heavier and a lot of places have flooded,” he said.
It was a similar picture in Fuzhou, with flood waters turning streets into rivers, the China Daily said.
”My car is swimming in the flooded street,” said a taxi driver.
Shanghai, which only weeks ago was battered by Typhoon Matsa, saw winds hit 50kph but was spared any substantial damage.
Matsa killed 10 people when it ripped through eastern China, seven of them in Shanghai. It came just two weeks after Typhoon Haitang left 17 people dead in the same region and another 12 dead in Taiwan.
East and south-east China are prone to typhoons and have been pummelled by dozens over the past 50 years.
Strong typhoon on course to hit Japan
Meanwhile, an extremely strong typhoon was churning towards Japan on Friday and was on course to hit the nation’s main southern island next week, the meteorological agency said.
Typhoon Nabi, which means butterfly in Korean, was late on Friday about 120km south-east of Okinotorishima island, which is 1 700km south of Tokyo.
Nabi was described by the meteorological agency as ”extremely strong”, packing winds of up to 180kph and moving northeast at 15kph.
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the United States Gulf Coast this week, sustained winds reaching 240kph, but the Pacific typhoon is expected to ease in strength before reaching land.
”It is likely to weaken as it approaches Japan. It is on course to hit the Okinawa islands around Monday and hit Kyushu island between Monday and Tuesday,” said a meteorological agency official.
This typhoon, which is due to hit as the United States cleans up from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, is different from the typhoon that pounded Taiwan on Thursday, killing three people and injuring 59 others.
Okinawa, a subtropical island chain near Taiwan, is regularly hit by typhoons, but strikes on Kyushu and other main islands are less frequent.
Last week, Japan was hit by Typhoon Mawar, which brought heavy rain and fierce winds that left at least one person dead when he fell off his roof.
Mainland Japan was struck by a record 10 typhoons last year. The last of them, Tokage, which means lizard in Japanese, was the deadliest typhoon in a quarter-century, killing 90 people. — Sapa-AFP