Chinese death toll from Typhoon Bilis rises to 164
CHINA: Torrential rainstorms and flooding unleashed by Typhoon Bilis
killed at least 164 people across southeast China, the official Xinhua
news agency reported on Sunday.
It said 43 people died in Fujian province, 39 in Hunan and 33 in
Guangdong as swirling waters swept away homes and forced the evacuation
of hundreds of thousands of people.
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 Taiwan before hitting China, 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.
Beijing, Monday, Reuters |