At least 115 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured when
Typhoon Rananim ripped through East China's Zhejiang
Province, causing widespread destruction.
One of the strongest storms in years and the 14th this year, the
typhoon blasted the city of Wenling on the coast of Zhejiang
Province, about 135 kilometers south of Shanghai, at 8?PM on
Thursday night.
Fifteen people are still missing and 185 people are seriously
injured.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said 8.59 million people have been
affected and the damage bill is likely to reach 15.33 billion yuan
(US$1.85 billion).
Provincial officials said 42,400 homes were destroyed and 88,000
were damaged, while 271,370 hectares of farmland were ruined. Ten
observation posts recorded rainfall of more than 200
millimeters.
The local authority evacuated 410,000 people from the path of
the typhoon, many from rural villages.
The typhoon also killed 31,000 heads of livestock.
Rananim is the strongest typhoon in the country since 1997, when
Typhoon Winnie killed 236 people and caused US$2.38-billion
damage.
One of the worst-hit areas on Thursday was the city of Taizhou,
which was plunged into darkness when power lines went down. The
city needs at least three days to fully restore power supply,
according to the local power provider.
More than 300 people were hospitalized and after four hours were
still being treated by candle and torchlight.
About 50 people were hurt by falling objects, said one local
doctor.
Conscious of a risk of disease, the provincial public health
bureau has sent teams of doctors and disinfectants to the area.
If there is a silver lining, it is a slight alleviation of
drought and high temperatures in the province.
In Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province, the temperature
dropped by nearly 10 Celsius on Friday.
About 10,000 factories in the city of Yiwu were able to resume
normal operations as electricity supply recovered on Friday.
Typhoon moves on
Typhoon Rananim did not pound Shanghai after all, instead
heading westwards to the neighboring Jiangxi
Province, where it arrived at about 11?AM on Friday.
Shanghai, East China's largest city, had been pre-warned about
winds but the typhoon changed track.
By the time it hit Yushan County in the northeast of Jiangxi
Province, the typhoon had weakened to a tropical storm, drenching
the area, said a local meteorologist.
"The tropical storm is expected to stay in the northern part of
the province for the rest of the day and continue to sweep the
southwestern part of Anhui
Province or the eastern part of Hubei
Province on Saturday," said Xu Aihua, forecaster with the
Jiangxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau.
Meteorologists have asked residents in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi
and Anhui provinces to be vigilant against possible landslides,
falling rocks and flash floods.
Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration,
released an emergency warning about Typhoon Rananim for the first
time on China Central Television Station on Thursday night.
Rananim means "hello" in the Chuukese language spoken in
Micronesia.
(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2004)
