Typhoon Lashes China Coast After Raking Taiwan

At least four people were killed and four were missing when powerful Typhoon Soudelor slammed into Taiwan, authorities said Saturday.

A typhoon that lashed Taiwan battered the mainland with heavy rain and winds on Sunday, leaving more than a dozen people dead or missing, levelling homes and cutting power to more than a million households.

Three airports in the province were closed, with more than 530 flights canceled. An eight-year-old girl and her mother had become the first fatalities when they were swept out to sea and died as the storm approached on Thursday. At least 185 people have been reported as injured. The twin sister of the girl was also reported as missing.

The center of the storm made landfall in eastern Taiwan before daybreak on Saturday.

“The extreme rainfall totals generated by typhoons combined with the steep mountain front in eastern Taiwan means that the landslide potential for Typhoon Soudelor is very high”, Petley wrote in his blog. The typhoon weakened as it moved inland toward the northwest.

A street corner is filled with a mangled rooftop brought down by strong winds from Typhoon Soudelor in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, August 8, 2015.

Authorities in southeastern China evacuated about 163,000 people and ordered about 32,000 ships back to port ahead of the typhoon, Xinhua reported.

Flights to Fuzhou and the city of Quanzhou were canceled, and about 100 trains running through the coastal city of Xiamen suspended services, Xinhua said.

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

Anhui and Jiangsu provinces have launched a level-three emergency response for the typhoon and rainstorms, following nearby Jiangxi Province.

On Friday afternoon, marine police rescued 55 college college students and academics trapped on a small island the place that they had been attending a summer time camp, after robust gales stopped ferry providers, Xinhua stated. President Barack Obama has declared the U.S. territory a major disaster zone, which qualifies residents for increased federal assistance.

Television footage trees uprooted and power poles toppled over, a moped being swept into the air by wind and shipping containers piled on top of each other at a port.