Krosa made landfall as a typhoon near the border of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces on Sunday, packing winds of 126 kilometres (78 miles) per hour, Xinhua news agency said, quoting authorities in Zhejiang.

But Krosa was soon downgraded to a tropical storm, it added.

More than one million people were evacuated in the two provinces ahead of the storm, and some airports reported flights were diverted or delayed over the weekend. No deaths were reported.

Emergency warnings in Shanghai were downgraded when a cold front moved in from the north, ensuring that Krosa was unlikely to affect the Special Olympics being held there, local papers said, citing meteorologists.

The typhoon poured up to 200 millimetres (eight inches) of rain on parts of Zhejiang and Fujian, Xinhua said. Steady rains in the two regions were expected to continue through Monday, it added.

Five people were killed, one other reported missing and dozens injured in Taiwan when the typhoon -- the biggest to hit the island this year -- swept in on Saturday, bringing heavy rains and winds of up to 162 kilometres per hour.

Krosa -- which means crane in Khmer -- caused power outages, unleashed mudslides, uprooted trees and sparked transport chaos across the island.

Southeastern China is regularly hit during the summer-to-autumn typhoon season. Last month, more than two million people were evacuated in Zhejiang and Fujian ahead of powerful Typhoon Wipha, which killed two in China.

earlier related report
Typhoon, floods kill 58 in Vietnam
At least 58 people have died in Vietnam since a typhoon slammed into the country, bringing the worst floods in decades to northern and central areas, rescue officials said Monday.

Emergency workers were taking water, food and medical supplies by boat and helicopter to stranded villagers cut off after rivers burst through dykes and landslides damaged roads in the aftermath of Typhoon Lekima.

The floods are the worst in some northern and central provinces in 45 years, said the Central Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Prevention and Control, according to the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA).

The toll was expected to climb as 15 people were still listed as missing.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited flood-hit Ninh Binh province Sunday and ordered authorities to supply shelters and food for flood victims and quickly repair damaged dykes, roads, houses and schools, VNA reported.

The province worst hit was north-central Nghe An, where 22 people have died. The severe weather has also killed nine people in Hoa Binh, seven in Son La and four in Ninh Binh provinces. Three other deaths were reported elsewhere.

In Thanh Hoa province, where six deaths have been reported, the waters were almost a metre (three feet) higher than in disastrous floods in 1996, said Do Minh Quy, chairman of the Thach Thanh district people's committee.

"We have evacuated 58,000 of the 148,000 people in our district," he told AFP. "At the moment more than 12,000 people are still isolated."

"Thousands of people are homeless," said army Lieutenant Colonel Tran Quang Thanh. "We try to bring them clean water. We are afraid the death toll could rise and epidemics may occur."

Do Thi Lien, a 50-year-old woman in Kim Tan town, said: "My one-storey house is under 2.5 metres of water. Six members of my family have moved to a nearby hill. We still have no electricity, no clean water, no telephone."

At the flooded district hospital, local doctor Nguyen Minh Tinh said there had been no electricity or clean drinking water for days, and that many patients had been moved to upper floors and to a nearby high school.

"All water and food to our hospital must be carried in by boat," he said.

"I haven't slept for four days," said another doctor, Mai Thi Thanh. "Many patients are in bad condition, and they could not be moved. We are trying to treat them without running water or electricity."

An emergency assessment team for Oxfam, UN agencies, the Red Cross and other organisations will travel into the three worst-hit provinces later this week to study the disaster situation and needs there, said one aid official.

"Some areas are not accessible, the water is still high there," said Oxfam humanitarian programme coordinator Provash Mondal.

At a meeting in Hanoi Monday, "officials said they need food and water and, in some areas, emergency shelters because the roofs of houses are gone," he said. "They also need hygiene and medicine supplies and educational materials for the children."

The typhoon, named after a local tropical fruit, and the ensuing floods have damaged or destroyed nearly 128,000 houses and 162,000 hectares (400,000 acres) of rice paddies and other crops in Vietnam, authorities said.

In northwestern Son La, bordering Laos, a landslide exposed six Vietnam war-era bombs in the town of Moc Chau, the Thanh Nien (Young People) daily reported, adding that an army unit had so far defused three of them.

Lekima -- Vietnam's fifth major storm of the year -- made landfall last Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 117 kilometres (72 miles) per hour, killing seven people in the centre of the country and leaving over 90 injured.

It had earlier hit the Philippines, then classified as a tropical storm, and left nine people dead, also unleashing landslides and floods.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News