One million evacuated as Typhoon Morakot hits east China

• Source: Global Times
• [02:27 August 10 2009]
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By Guo Qiang and Chen Yang

Workers struggle yesterday to control flooding, triggered by Typhoon Morakot, which caused sea water to burst dikes in Xiapu County, East China’s Fujian Province, putting the lives of more than 2,000 residents living in surrounding areas at risk (see story on page 2). Photo: Xinhua

At least one person has been killed and three others injured as Typhoon Morakot slammed into southeast China’s Fujian and Zhejiang provinces yesterday, one day after it pounded Taiwan with torrential rains that caused the worst flooding on the island in 50 years and left dozens missing and feared dead.

The eighth Typhoon of this year made landfall in Xiapu county at about 4:20 pm, packing winds of close to 119 kilometers per hour and slicing its way north at a speed of 12 kph at its eye, the National Meteorological Center said, adding that Morokot is expected to weaken to a tropical storm.

Four adults and a 4-year-old boy were buried in debris as five houses collapsed in Wenzhou city in Zhejiang Province after 8 am yesterday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The child died during the afternoon after emergency treatment failed, the city’s flood-control headquarters said.

Some 1 million people were evacuated in coastal areas of eastern provinces by early Sunday – more than 490,000 people in Zhejiang and 480,000 others in neighboring Fujian.

In Zhejiang, approximately 35,440 ships have been called back to port, the provincial flood-control headquarters said Sunday morning, while authorities in Fujian urged 48,000 boats to return to harbor.

Flood-control and drought-relief headquarters in the province had raised the emergency alert from Level-II to Level-I with Wenzhou likely to become the worst-hit area.

As of 8 am yesterday, as many as 220,000 residents in Wenzhou were relocated to safety, 8,997 boats had returned to port and 331 houses had collapsed, incurring direct economic losses of 229 million yuan. Wenzhou City airport had canceled 39 domestic flights.

Chen Lianjin, a 20-year-old resident of Pingyang, Wenzhou, said the deepest water level was up to three meters in some low-lying areas, and his family has had to live on pickles after runing out of vegetables.

“It has rained continuously and heavily since Thursday, and wind strength has reached Level 14 at most,” an official at the Wenzhou Meteorological Bureau told the Global Times.