China And Taiwan Grapple With Havoc From Typhoon Haitang

SHAKE & BLOW

A house still under construction slides in the Taimali river, in Taitung, eastern Taiwan, during a heavy storm caused by Typhoon Haitang, 19 July 2005. Two people were killed and another two were feared dead after Typhoon Haitang pounded Taiwan with powerful winds and rains, causing millions of US dollars of losses to crops, rescue officials said. AFP Photo by Tung Chuan-Chih

Shanghai (AFP) Jul 20, 2005
At least 15 people were reported dead and several missing Wednesday in China and Taiwan in the aftermath of Typhoon Haitang, whose lashing winds and rain caused millions of dollars in damage.

Two days after the most violent storm of the season pounded Taiwan, rescuers found four bodies to bring the island's toll to 12 dead and two missing, the National Fire Agency said.

In China's Zhejiang province three people died, national radio said, while a civil affairs bureau official told AFP that another three were missing in the same province.

Xinhua news agency later reported that two people were killed and another six were missing in Zhejiang's Wenzhou city. It was unclear whether this figure was already included in the radio report's death toll.

Houses collapsed, trees toppled and mudslides engulfed roads, affecting eight million people in southeast China as the typhoon battered the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian late on Tuesday.

The storm forced more than one million people in the two provinces from their homes and left more than 1,000 people trapped by raging floodwaters.

"The police saved my life. All hope of survival was abandoned until the police appeared," Xinhua news agency quoted one resident as saying in Zhejiang's Pingyang county, where floodwaters reached three metres (10 feet).

Around 800 people were stranded in Pingyang, the agency said. The China Daily said police had to wade through shoulder-deep water to rescue some 300 people stuck in their homes in Cangnan county in the same province.

The county, one of the areas hardest hit, suffered blackouts and water cuts, a local government official told the paper. One person died in Cangnan, it said.

So far the storm has caused more than 261 million dollars in damage in China, according to the Wenzhou Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

In Taiwan, where farms, fishponds and rice paddies were flooded, more than 81 million dollars in damage was estimated.

One sailor drowned when a ship went down in high seas off Taiwan's southern port of Kaohsiung, while another of the 21-member crew was missing. The other 19 were rescued by helicopters battling the high winds.

Another 36 Taiwanese were injured in storm-related accidents.

Taiwan bore the brunt of the storm's fury after Haitang made landfall there on Monday with winds gusting up to up to 227 kilometres (136 miles) per hour.

Despite the battering suffered by Zhejiang and Fujian, China escaped the worst and Haitang was downgraded to a tropical storm as it pushed further inland.

The China Meterological Administration said the storm had weakened as it pushed through to Jiangsu province, with strong winds continuing to subside.

More than 32,000 cattle died in Wenzhou city, where 4,795 houses were destroyed along with crops totalling 30,000 hectares (74,100 acres), Xinhua said.

Authorities remained on high alert after last year's Typhoon Rananim devastated Zhejiang, killing at least 164 people and causing millions of dollars in damage.

East and southeast China are prone to typhoons and have been pummeled by at least 15 over the past 50 years.

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SHAKE AND BLOW

Northeastern Mexico, Southern Texas Brace For Hurricane Emily

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (AFP) Jul 19, 2005
Northeastern Mexico and southern Texas Tuesday braced for the fury of Hurricane Emily, which killed 10 people as it thundered over the Caribbean and the Yucatan peninsula.

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