Typhoon Soudelor hits China with deaths, floods and mudslides

After hitting Taiwan, Soudelor struck the Chinese mainland on Saturday night, killing 17 people there with five more missing, state media reported Monday. Another four individuals have been missing.

An eight-year-girl and her mother died when they were swept out to sea from a beach, the government’s Central News Agency said.

Provincial officials have sent rescue teams to the regions most heavily impacted by the typhoon.

At least four others went missing as some parts of the country were hit by the heaviest rains in a century, the Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. In Wenzhou alone, more than 50,000 people have been dispatched to help cope with the aftermath of the disaster.

Soudelor caused at least seven deaths in Taiwan as it flooded rivers, ripped up trees, and triggered landslides.

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

Typhoon Soudelor forced almost 200,000 people to leave their homes there.

In the provincial capital of Fuzhou, much of the downtown area was waterlogged. The power company has deployed more than 11,000 workers to restore electricity supplies. Hundreds of people are being housed in shelters, according to the American Red Cross.

Tens of thousands of households had lost power in Quanzhou city, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Airports were closed in the affected provinces, with over 500 flights cancelled.

China’s National Meteorological Center forecast the typhoon would be downgraded to a tropical depression by Sunday night as it moved further inland.

Soudelor, packing maximum sustained winds of 173 kilometres per hour, earlier left seven people dead and five missing in Taiwan, authorities on the island said Monday.

More than 530 flights were cancelled and 191 high-speed trains were suspended on Saturday.