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Typhoon forces mass evacuation in China

HANGZHOU (CHINA): Typhoon Krosa weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall in east China on Sunday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of more than one million people in the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian.

It was downgraded to a tropical storm at 5 p.m., when it was located at 27.3 degrees north latitude and 120.3 degrees east longitude, packing winds of about 108 km per hour at its eye, the Zhejiang Provincial Flood Prevention and Drought Relief Headquarters said.

It was moving north-westward at a speed of 20 km per hour, the headquarters said.

Typhoon Krosa, the 16th this year, landed at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday near the borders of Zhejiang’s Cangnan county and Fujian’s Fuding city. Krosa unleashed gale force winds and torrential rain in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city, making rivers swollen, pulling down houses, cutting off power supplies, halting highway traffic and air services. It was also forecast to even trigger landslips in some areas of Fujian.

No casualties have been reported.

More than one million people have been evacuated in the two provinces — 837,000 for Zhejiang and 230,000 for Fujian, while schools, airports, expressways and shipping services in some areas have been shut down. Meanwhile, vessels have been recalled to harbour.

The tourism authorities in Zhejiang have closed almost all scenic spots along the coast, and evacuated more than 500,000 holiday-makers who had flocked to the seaside resorts for the week-long National Day holiday ending on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, rescuers were battling against strong winds to tow a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship to harbour, which suffered a mechanical failure after being hit by Krosa off the coast of Wenzhou city.

Twenty-seven crew members were aboard the ship, Aladdin Dream, including sailors from Russia, India and the Philippines, rescuers said.

Krosa has left four dead, two missing and 52 injured in Taiwan, in addition to cutting off power supplies and halting highway and air traffic, according to Taiwan media reports. — Xinhua

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