Rescuers in east China's Zhejiang Province helped a Hong
Kong-registered cargo ship, which had been trapped in the East
China Sea by typhoon Krosa for more than 80 hours after an engine
malfunction, back to port on Tuesday afternoon.
Dragged by a tug ship sent by the Salvation Center of East China
Sea, the cargo ship, Aladdin Dream, reached the Wenzhou Port at
5:00?PM All 27 crew members from Russia, India and the
Philippines were reported to be in a sound condition.
The ship, carrying 12,000 tons of steel, was trapped 28 nautical
miles off Wenling on Saturday morning by typhoon Krosa and was in
danger of sinking and capsizing in the strong gales and
rainstorms.
Eight vessels and almost 200 rescuers were sent to the site,
however, their efforts to rescue the ship were hindered by winds of
more than 110 kilometers per hour.
"The wind was so strong that we could barely get close to the
ship and the dragline thrown from the tug boats kept falling into
water," said Liu Qiaoming, captain of a rescue boat from the
Wenzhou Center.
The rescue boats stayed overnight with the cargo ship in the sea
before the dragline was fixed one more time on Tuesday morning when
the wind out at sea weakened, said Li.
Typhoon Krosa, the 16th this year, made landfall between
Zhejiang and Fujian provinces on Sunday afternoon, but it quickly
weakened to a tropical storm. It re-entered the East China Sea at
5:30 p.m. from Sanmen County in Zhejiang without causing casualties
on the mainland.
Krosa has caused 460 million yuan in damage in Fujian, while
Zhejiang reported losses of 7.5 billion yuan with more than 700
million people affected.
As Krosa leaves, the provinces affected have begun
reconstruction work and more than 1.4 million evacuees have
returned home.
(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2007)