Strong Typhoon Hits Taiwan, China

Typhoon Soudelor hit China’s east coast on Sunday, killing 14 people and forcing the authorities to evacuate hundreds of thousands more.

China’s eastern province of Fujian evacuated at least 158,000 people and called more than 32,000 fishing boats back to harbour as the typhoon approached, according to the provincial government.

In neighbouring Zhejiang province, 14 were killed and four missing, the official news agency Xinhua reported earlier, quoting local officials as saying that the dead and missing may have been washed away by floods or buried under ruined homes. In the nearby city of Lishui, two more lost their lives in the storm.

The typhoon brought heavy downpour to the regions.

At least seven persons were killed, five are still missing and 402 were injured as a result of the typhoon, according to statistics compiled by the National Fire Agency under the Ministry of the Interior on Sunday evening.

“The rain pounded non-stop on Saturday night and when we woke up this morning, the vehicle parked outside the home has nearly been submerged”, said a resident surnamed Chen in the county of Pingyang in Wenzhou.

Businesses in the service sector, such as operators of department stores, movie theaters and food delivery services, are normally open during holidays in Taiwan, expecting more customers than on working days.

Around 1.58 million people have been affected in Zhejiang, with 188,400 forced to relocate by Sunday afternoon.

Direct economic losses totalled 560 million yuan ($91.5 million), the statement added.

Soudelor is the fourth typhoon to trigger sea or land warnings in Taiwan this year and made landfall on the sixth anniversary of Typhoon Morakot, which killed 600 people.

Utter devastation… Emergency rescue personnel carry children past crushed cars from a flash mudslide caused by Typhoon Soudelor in Xindian, New Taipei City.

Soudelor made landfall Saturday night in the city of Putian, in China’s southern Fujian province.