Typhoon forces 181 000 to evacuate in China

HEFEI. — Typhoon Soudelor, the 13th this year, has left four people dead and forced 181 000 to evacuate in east China’s Anhui Province since it entered the province on Sunday morning, local authorities said yesterday.

More than 550 000 people and 19 600 hectares of crops in 10 cities were affected by the typhoon.

Some 562 houses collapsed and another 1 194 were damaged, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

Direct economic losses totalled 560 million yuan (91.5 million U.S. dollars), according to the department.

The typhoon had left 14 people dead and another four missing in neighbouring Zhejiang Province as of Sunday afternoon. In the hardest-hit city of Wenzhou, 12 were killed and four were missing. In the neighbouring city of Lishui, another two were killed.

The 14 have been killed after being either washed away by flash floods or buried in house collapse or landslides, the provincial flood control authorities said.

The typhoon brought heavy downpours to the regions where precipitation in some counties reached 700 mm over the past two and a half days, a record in up to 120 years.

Floods have inundated several townships in the two cities, with water as deep as four meters.

“The rain pounded non-stop on Saturday night and when we woke up this morning, the car parked outside the home has almost been submerged,” said a resident surnamed Chen in the county of Pingyang in Wenzhou. “We never expected the rain to be such heavy.”

By Sunday afternoon, the typhoon has affected 1.58 million people and forced 188 400 to relocate in Zhejiang. It also toppled down 223 houses, damaged 272 roads and 43 600 hectares of crops, inflicting a direct economic loss of 4 billion yuan (644 million US dollars).

The typhoon has once cut power supply to 785 000 homes, but 60 percent have been resumed by Sunday evening.

Provincial officials have headed rescue teams to the hard-hit regions. In Wenzhou alone, more than 50 000 rescuers have been dispatched to help cope with the aftermath of the disaster. — Xinhua.