China?s typhoon toll jumps to 295

CHINA: The death toll from China?s strongest typhoon in five decades jumped to 295 on Tuesday and was expected to climb higher as scores of bodies of fishermen and sailors were found at sea, a state news agency reported.

Some 59 bodies were found Monday in waters off Fuding, a port on the southeastern coast, raising the city?s death toll in Typhoon Saomai to at least 178, with 94 people missing, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Saomai sank more than 1,000 ships and wrecked more than 50,000 houses when it slammed into China?s southeast on Thursday with winds of up to 270 kph (170 mph).

China has mobilized thousands of soldiers to help rebuild damaged roads, power lines and water supplies. Most of those killed in Fuding died ?when the super strong typhoon broke the moorings on their ships which had sought shelter in the harbor,? Xinhua said.

Fuding suffered at least 2.5 billion yuan (US$312 million; euro245 million) in damage, mainly due to lost fishing boats and catches of fish, Xinhua said. Saomai blacked out parts of Fuding and five other cities in Fujian province.

More than 1.6 million people fled their homes in Fujian and the neighboring coastal province of Zhejiang.

The death toll stood at 206 in Fujian, 87 in Zhejiang and two in Jiangxi, an inland province that was hit by flooding and landslides as Saomai moved west across China.

The China Daily newspaper said Tuesday that 52 people were missing in Zhejiang. Saomai, the Vietnamese name for the planet Venus, was the eighth major storm to hit China during an unusually violent typhoon season.

Beijing, Tuesday, AP