At least 77 people have died as a result of tropical storm
Prapiroon as of yesterday in south China's Guangdong Province and the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, despite the
early relocation of more than 660,000 people from the threatened
areas, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The latest casualties are from Guangxi where Prapiroon has
continued to cause damage despite weakening from typhoon to
tropical storm strength. Prapiroon has caused flash floods and
landslides and razed houses killing 26 in Guangxi, Xinhua said.
The Guangxi civil affairs department said Prapiroon affected 5.1
million people in the region, destroying 9,300 houses and crops on
195,900 hectares of farmland.
Prapiroon made landfall at the south China coastal area in
western Guangdong on Thursday leaving at least 51 dead in that
province alone.
As the sixth typhoon of the year Prapiroon brought strong winds
and torrential rains in Guangdong with Taishan, Enping, and
Yangchun being worst hit. Over 3.70 million people were affected
and 7,000 houses razed. Direct economic losses are forecast at 2.4
billion yuan (US$300 million).
Last month China witnessed the worst natural calamities this
year. They left 918 dead, 310 missing and a direct economic loss of
around 68.8 billion yuan (US$8.6 billion). These figures come from
a conference Thursday of multiple ministries reporting and
summarizing natural disasters in July.
Bilis, the fourth typhoon in this storm season, brought the most
fatalities with 637 dead and 210 missing. Typhoon-induced flash
floods, landslides and mud-rock flows in 20 provinces and
autonomous regions were blamed for many of the casualties, said
Chen Hongling of the Ministry of Civil Affairs at the
conference.
A 370-year-old castle in east China's Fujian Province collapsed after being hit by
typhoons which have repeatedly swept the area over the past three
months.
Nine houses in the Caipu Castle, in Fujian's Yunxiao County,
collapsed after being soaked in floodwaters for weeks while more
than 200 square meters of the outer castle wall collapsed, a county
cultural official said yesterday. "Fortunately nobody was injured
or killed," said Tang Yuxian, curator of the county museum.
The castle moat has often flooded the castle since mid-May when
typhoon Chanchu lashed southern and eastern China. Bilis and Kaemi
followed which resulted in floods and landslides killing hundreds
of people.
More than 200 families live in the castle which is 500 meters in
circumference. It was built in 1636 and was the only round castle
made of a mixture of lime, clay and sand which still existed in
Fujian, said Tang.
In contrast to the rising water levels, Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou provinces are suffering from serious
drought.
This month will likely see another two or three tropical storms
hitting China, said Chen Yu, senior engineer from China
Meteorological Administration.
China has experienced its worst and most severe geological
calamities of the year in July, according to Tang Can, senior
engineer from the Ministry of Land and Resources. Statistics show
that more than 80,000 earthquakes occurred last month causing 259
deaths with 75 people missing.
The most serious tremor, measuring 5.1 on the Richer scale,
resulted in 22 deaths in Yunnan Province.
(China Daily August 7, 2006)