The death toll from Typhoon Longwang in east China's Fujian
Province reached 65 last night.
Fifty armed police officers swept away in a landslide have been
confirmed dead, while a further 36 officers are still missing, the
Xinhua News Agency reported.
The officers were in a training school barracks in Fujian when
the violent floods
struck on Sunday night.
After 40 hours of searching by more than 7,000 soldiers and
rescuers, 50 bodies had been found by yesterday afternoon.
Of the 15 others killed by the typhoon, five died in landslides,
five were swept away by floods and the remaining five were
drowned.
Typhoon Longwang, which means dragon king in Chinese, slammed
into China's southeast coast late Sunday night. It was rapidly
downgraded on Monday morning to a tropical storm, but still brought
downpours to Fujian Province. Pools of water on the ground reached
2 meters in depth after the rains.
More than 3.7 million people in 62 cities and counties of the
province were affected by the typhoon, the 19th to hit China this
year.
Around 5,500 houses were toppled and 98,000 hectares of crops in
Fujian were damaged.
A total of 730,000 people in the coastal provinces of Fujian,
Zhejiang and Guangdong were evacuated to safety from the
typhoon.
The typhoon also killed one person and injured more than 10
others in Taiwan Province before hitting the mainland.
China has suffered numerous heavy storms this year. In September
alone, typhoons Talim, Khanun and Damrey killed more than 130
people across the southern part of the country.
Xinhua reported that life was returning to normal in Fujian with
the resumption of rail, flight and shipping services out of Fuzhou,
the provincial capital.
Apart from the havoc triggered by the typhoon, flooding has
struck or is threatening along major tributaries of the Yellow and
Yangtze rivers after sustained heavy rains since September 24.
Around 79,000 people along the Weihe River in northwest China's
Shaanxi
Province and 24,000 people near the Hanjiang River in central
China's Hubei
Province have been evacuated, according to Xinhua.
Flooding, which has already struck along the Weihe River, the
biggest tributary of Yellow River, already affected 1.6 million
local residents and caused direct economic losses estimated at 490
million yuan (US$60.49 million) in Shaanxi.
Continued heavy rains over the past week caused the biggest
flood in ten years along the Weihe River. Water levels along the
tributary have exceeded danger levels, according to provincial
flood control and drought relief headquarters.
The water level at the Lintong measuring station was nearly 36
meters, the highest reading since 1961 and 1.58 meters above the
danger level.
On the Hanjiang River in Hubei Province, observers at the
Danjiangkou Reservoir recorded a flow of 30,700 cubic meters per
second, the highest since 1983.
According to weather forecasts, the upper reaches of the
Hanjiang River still face heavy rain in the coming two days,
further complicating flood-control work.
Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu have urged
government departments in both provinces to take emergency measures
to evacuate people and examine dams to guard against flooding.
(China Daily,?Xinhua News Agency?October 5,
2005)
