Taiwan death toll rises to 6 after 8-year-old girl found
Print Edition
FOURTEEN people were killed and four others have been reported as missing after Typhoon Soudelor hit east China’s Zhejiang Province, the local government said yesterday.
In the hardest-hit city of Wenzhou, 12 people were killed and four are still missing. In the neighboring city of Lishui, another two people died.
The victims were either washed away by flash floods or buried when their houses collapsed or in landslides, Zhejiang flood control authorities said.
The typhoon brought heavy downpours to the regions where precipitation in some counties reached 700 millimeters 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 levels rising to as deep as 4 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 so heavy,” Chen said.
The city’s Wencheng County saw downpours of 645 millimeters in 24 hours — the heaviest in 100 years.
By yesterday afternoon, the typhoon had affected 1.58 million people and forced 188,400 to relocate in Zhejiang.
It had also toppled 223 houses, damaged 272 roads and 43,600 hectares of crops, inflicting direct economic losses that were estimated at 4 billion yuan (US$644 million).
The typhoon cut power supplies to 785,000 homes, but 60 percent had their supplies restored by last night.
Provincial officials have despatched rescue teams to the hardest-hit regions.
In Wenzhou alone, more than 50,000 rescuers were sent in to help cope with the aftermath of the disaster.
Authorities were warning of guarding against flash floods and landslides to avoid further casualties.
Soudelor made landfall in Fujian Province, Zhejiang’s neighbor to the south, late on Saturday night.
It affected about 1.21 million people in Fujian, forcing the evacuation of 320,000 residents, while 700 houses had collapsed as of 2pm yesterday.
The city of Fuding experienced the heaviest rainfall at over 501 millimeters.
In the provincial capital of Fuzhou, much of the downtown area was waterlogged. More than 10,000 trees had fallen and traffic stalled on flooded streets.
“The tap water has stopped. The electricity is out. I’m hiding at home and scared to go outside,” Fuzhou housewife Pan Danyun told reporters.
Power supplies for more than 3 million households were affected but had been restored for 1.14 million of them as of yesterday morning after urgent repairs, according to State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co.
Three airports in the province were closed, with more than 530 flights canceled. Six expressways were closed, and 191 high-speed trains canceled.
Soudelor had earlier left six people dead in Taiwan, where it ripped up trees and triggered landslides, damaging electricity lines and knocking out power to a record 4 million households.
Almost half a million homes were still without power yesterday, Taiwan Power Co said, as blocked roads hampered efforts to restore supplies in some areas.
The island’s death toll rose to six yesterday after an 8-year-old girl who went missing last Thursday after being swept out to sea with her mother and twin sister was found dead.
Her mother and sister, caught in the strong waves on the east coast, were the first victims of the typhoon. Some 379 people were injured by the storm in Taiwan, which saw rivers break their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pound the coastline.
Dramatic images showed an elderly man who was buried up to his waist in a mudslide being hauled out by emergency workers in the picturesque hot spring area of Wulai, just outside Taipei.
Another man, aged 83, died after being buried in the mudslide.
One mountain village in Taiwan’s northern region of Taoyuan was left almost submerged in mud.
“Flash mudslides surged into the village. About 10 of the homes were half buried but people were evacuated last night and are in safe shelters,” said a spokesman for the Taoyuan fire agency.
Tatung township in eastern Yilan saw the most rain, with more than a meter falling since Thursday.
“I’ve never seen such a powerful typhoon in my 60 years of life,” one elderly woman in eastern Taitung told a local TV station.
Taiwan lifted its typhoon warning yesterday, but the weather bureau warned of further heavy rain in the south.
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