Typhoon slams into southern China
Mon Sep 26, 2005 at 11:34 am |
china news |
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From the CNN website...
BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- The strongest storm to hit China's southern resort island of Hainan in decades ploughed along its coast on Monday after killing two people and forcing more than 170,000 from their homes.
Typhoon Damrey had caused casualties, flattened houses and damaged crops on an island often referred to as China's Hawaii since it made landfall on Sunday, but the full extent of the destruction was unknown, a disaster relief official said.
"The primary threat now is strong winds, but judging from our experience in recent years, river floods are also possible if the heavy rains continue," he told Reuters by telephone.
He said more than 170,000 people had been evacuated to safety. There was no immediate word of damage to hotels.
Two people were killed in Wanning, the coastal city where the typhoon made landfall on Sunday, when their houses collapsed, Xinhua news agency said.
Some 5,000 people were left stranded at the airport in the coastal city and provincial capital of Haikou after dozens of flights were cancelled.
A Haikou official said power was cut to parts of the city as well as other areas of Hainan. She did not elaborate.
The storm packed winds of up to 200 km (125 miles) per hour, Xinhua news agency said, and state television showed banana trees snapped in two. Experts warned rice and rubber crops could sustain major damage.
"We hope the storm will be over after dinner tonight and the guests can leave then," said Melody Xu, public relations manager for the Sheraton Hotel in the beach resort of Sanya, where some tourists have been stuck in their hotels.
In nearby Guangdong province, 16,000 people were evacuated in Zhanjiang city, state television said, and a fisherman has been reported missing after three boats capsized in choppy seas.
"The typhoon, with the wind speed of 55 meters per second at the center, dwarfs all those that have hit Hainan since 1960," apart from a storm that struck the province on Sept. 13, 1973, it quoted Cai Qinbo, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Meteorological Station, as saying.
The west-moving typhoon swept down the island's southeastern coast and was headed for Vietnam, where state forecasters have warned the storm is expected to dump heavy rains on more than 10 northern and central provinces.
"Be on alert for inundations in low-lying areas, flash floods and landslides in mountainous areas," the bulletin said.
The typhoon should miss the Central Highlands coffee belt, which lies further to the south. Vietnam is the world's second-biggest coffee producer after Brazil.
The Defense Ministry-run Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper said helicopters had been scrambled to tell more than 19,000 fishermen to return to port while soldiers were dispatched to reinforce dykes and help evacuate several hundred people.
Typhoons, known as hurricanes in the West, gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall.
They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.
Typhoon Damrey had caused casualties, flattened houses and damaged crops on an island often referred to as China's Hawaii since it made landfall on Sunday, but the full extent of the destruction was unknown, a disaster relief official said.
"The primary threat now is strong winds, but judging from our experience in recent years, river floods are also possible if the heavy rains continue," he told Reuters by telephone.
He said more than 170,000 people had been evacuated to safety. There was no immediate word of damage to hotels.
Two people were killed in Wanning, the coastal city where the typhoon made landfall on Sunday, when their houses collapsed, Xinhua news agency said.
Some 5,000 people were left stranded at the airport in the coastal city and provincial capital of Haikou after dozens of flights were cancelled.
A Haikou official said power was cut to parts of the city as well as other areas of Hainan. She did not elaborate.
The storm packed winds of up to 200 km (125 miles) per hour, Xinhua news agency said, and state television showed banana trees snapped in two. Experts warned rice and rubber crops could sustain major damage.
"We hope the storm will be over after dinner tonight and the guests can leave then," said Melody Xu, public relations manager for the Sheraton Hotel in the beach resort of Sanya, where some tourists have been stuck in their hotels.
In nearby Guangdong province, 16,000 people were evacuated in Zhanjiang city, state television said, and a fisherman has been reported missing after three boats capsized in choppy seas.
"The typhoon, with the wind speed of 55 meters per second at the center, dwarfs all those that have hit Hainan since 1960," apart from a storm that struck the province on Sept. 13, 1973, it quoted Cai Qinbo, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Meteorological Station, as saying.
The west-moving typhoon swept down the island's southeastern coast and was headed for Vietnam, where state forecasters have warned the storm is expected to dump heavy rains on more than 10 northern and central provinces.
"Be on alert for inundations in low-lying areas, flash floods and landslides in mountainous areas," the bulletin said.
The typhoon should miss the Central Highlands coffee belt, which lies further to the south. Vietnam is the world's second-biggest coffee producer after Brazil.
The Defense Ministry-run Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper said helicopters had been scrambled to tell more than 19,000 fishermen to return to port while soldiers were dispatched to reinforce dykes and help evacuate several hundred people.
Typhoons, known as hurricanes in the West, gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall.
They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.
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