The death toll caused by Typhoon Mindulle has risen to 15 with
eight injured and nine missing, according to the latest statistics
on Sunday morning.
Mindulle, the Korean word for dandelion, brought heavy rain to
central and southern parts of Taiwan, an island province in
southeast China, since July 1.
The southwest airflow, which was believed the strongest ever
hitting Taiwan, has brought torrential rain. Many places in
counties such as Gaoxiong, Jiayi, Nantou and Taizhong have received
more than 1,000 millimeters of rainfall.
Mindulle has uprooted trees, swollen rivers, flowed seawater
backward and caused mud-rock flow. The heavy rains also made 59
sections of roads collapsed. Nearly 80,000 households suffered from
power blackout for a while.
Agricultural sector was among the worst victims with estimated
losses to exceed 1 billion yuan (Taiwan currency), according to
reports from local media.
Transportation to Ali Shan, a famous scenic mountain in central
Taiwan, were suspended because of the fallen rocks and woods.
Influence of the southwest airflow would continue for three to
four days upon the island, according to local meteorological
department.
The strong tropical storm has also landed Zhejiang
Province and its neighboring Shanghai Municipality over the
weekend.
Torrential rains and strong wind began sweeping the city at
around 8 AM, stopping people from going out for weekend traveling
and shopping. An advertising board fell in the storm and hurt one
person.
According to the local meteorological station, Mindulle landed
in Zhejiang at about 9:30 AM. Till 3 PM, Shanghai's downtown
districts had been struck by the wind at a gale force of? 7 to
9 and parts of the city had received rainfall exceeding 100
millimeters.
The local flood control department monitored the water level in
the Suzhouhe section of the Huangpu River had reached 4.35 meters
and would probably exceed the 4.55-meter alert line to rise to 4.75
meters Saturday night.
The whole city has been on high flood alert and the local TV
station has been live broadcasting the tropical storm. It would
continue approaching Shanghai and bring torrential rains till
Saturday midnight and begin fading away Sunday morning, according
to the weather forecast.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2004)
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