Typhoon toll rises to 154 in China
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-07-17 08:27
Torrential rainstorms and flooding unleashed by Typhoon Bilis killed at least
154 people across southeast China, according to latest Xinhua and local
news reports.
It said 43 people died in Fujian province, 78 in
Hunan and 33 in Guangdong as swirling waters swept away homes and forced the
evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.
Cars drive in a
flooded street in Chenzhou, central China's Hunan province July 15,
2005. [Xinhua] |
Local rescue teams,
backed by the army, moved in to scoop families to safety. One baby was floated
over the floods in a plastic basin and into the arms of waiting soldiers.
A mudslide triggered by the rains in the city of Zhangzhou killed 10
people and local officials held out little hope for a further 10 engulfed by a
second landslide, state television said.
Emergency workers delivered
tents, quilts and instant noodles to the victims of the storm.
Eleven
seamen were plucked to safety before a Russian vessel sank in stormy seas off
the Chinese coast on Saturday, Xinhua said.
Bilis ravaged the
Philippines and China's Taiwan island before hitting the Chinese mainland, where
it was downgraded to a tropical storm but still wrought havoc.
Flooding
cut the main Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, stranding 5,000 passengers at the
station in Changsha, Hunan's capital. Some 10,000 workers were repairing the
inundated track.
In the city of Lechang, the streets were under 3 metres
(10 feet) of water and more than 1,600 inmates were evacuated from the local
prison, Xinhua said. In Leiyang, water levels had risen more than 10 metres
since Friday to record heights.
Local weathermen said heavy rains or
rainstorms would continue in Guangdong for the next couple of days.
Disaster officials put the number of dead at 28 in the Philippines,
where more bodies were found on Saturday in swollen rivers and creeks and dug
out from dozens of minor landslides.
The storm also caused one death in
southern Taiwan.
|
