The heavy rains Typhoon Mindulle dumped on Guangzhou have brought temporary relief from a heat wave blamed for 41 deaths, with temperatures falling 4 degrees Celsius to about 34 ℃  yesterday.

Despite bringing some cool relief, Mindulle was anything but friendly. So far, the typhoon has killed more than 15 people and flooded thousands of hectares.

Temperatures in the capital of Guangdong Province broke five-decade-old records in the three days leading up to Saturday. In the previous week, the mercury climbed as high as 39.3 ℃ .

Several people died at work, mostly construction workers working long hours under the sun, said the Guangzhou 120 Emergency Medical Rescue Center. The youngest was 20 years old.

The other victims were mainly senior citizens who died of sunstroke or related diseases at home. The oldest was a 93-year-old woman.

Liang Zijing, a doctor at the Emergency Department in Guangzhou No. 1 People’s Hospital, said the heat wave caused many complications for local senior citizens, who accounted for more than 80 percent of their emergency cases in the past week.

The Guangzhou 120 Emergency Medical Rescue Center received 107 patients with high fevers and another 100 sunstroke victims in a three-day period.

More than 520 ambulances were dispatched to help people affected by the heat wave on July 1 alone. The center usually dispatches about 200 ambulances a day.

The Guangzhou Observatory issued a warning for six consecutive days ending Saturday.

Lin Liangxun, of the Guangdong Provincial Observatory, said more than 20 cities and counties saw record high temperatures last week. Despite the cooling effects of Typhoon Mindulle, Lin warned the heat wave would continue in the southern Chinese province in the next few days.

While Mindulle’s heavy rains were a boon for some, they were not so welcome in many coastal areas.

Mindulle, the Korean word for dandelion, mainly hit Taiwan and southeastern mainland provinces, Shanghai, and Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

The death toll caused by Mindulle rose to 15, with another eight injured and nine missing in Taiwan. Since July 1, the typhoon has uprooted trees, swollen rivers, pushed seawater backward and caused mudslides in central and southern parts of Taiwan

The storm first struck the mainland in Leqing, Zhejiang Province, at about 9:30 AM on July 3.

Torrential rains and gales buffeted Huzhou, in Zhejiang Province. The typhoon damaged 18 ships, drowned one 12-year-old boy and his mother and left two missing at Taihu Lake in Huzhou, said local government sources.

Shanghai was also hit, but there were no reports of death or injuries, said Yao Zuqing, of the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

Yao said city’s Chongming County received the heaviest rainfall and more than 2,000 hectares of field were flooded.

(China Daily July 5, 2004)