Typhoon Soudelor swept across China on Saturday evening, causing at least 36.3 million euros of damage and knocking out power to more than two million homes.The storm left 17 people dead in China, most of them in the eastern Chinese cities of Wenzhou and Lishui, where heavy rains triggered mudslides and caused houses to collapse, state news agency Xinhua reported. Across the strait in Taiwan, seven others have been confirmed dead.
The number of the dead people from the typhoon is constantly changing up until now but unfortunately, it seems to be going only up.In neighbouring Zhejiang province, 14 were killed and four are missing, the official news agency Xinhua reported earlier, quoting local officials as saying the dead and missing may have been washed away by floods or buried under ruined homes.
Further south in Fujian province where the typhoon made landfall on Saturday night.In Ningde City, three people were killed in a landslide and a village official was swept away by floodwaters on Sunday, the provincial flood control and drought relief office said, the Fujian Daily reported. The total direct economic losses in the two coastal provinces were estimated at about $1.31 billion, figures from state media showed.
Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year with winds of up to 230kmh (142mph), Soudelor – named after a Micronesian chief – has since weakened.About 379 people were injured by the storm in Taiwan, which saw rivers break their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pound the coastline. The China Meteorological Administration lifted its typhoon warning on Monday as the storm weakened and moved further inland.
Typhoons are common at this time of year and particularly in the South China Sea and Pacific, picking up strength from warm waters before losing it over land.
Almost half a million homes were still without power Sunday, Taiwan Power Co. said, as blocked roads hampered efforts to restore supplies in some areas. Taiwan's death toll rose to six after an eight-year-old girl who went missing Thursday after being swept out to sea with her mother and twin sister was found dead. Her mother and sister, caught in the strong waves on the east coast, were the first victims of the typhoon.
Tragedies seem to come and go for China, the country that recently decided to make a power demonstration.
Storm chaser James Reynolds spoke to CNN on Saturday from southeastern Taiwan and said that ferocious winds and blinding rain hit as the storm reached land. Huge waves battered the coastline, causing "a lot of flying debris, a lot of tree damage, and along the coastal areas, the waves had inundated the low-lying areas, damaging the roads in places as well as some vulnerable properties, which were right by the coast," he said.
It will definitely take long for the people of those areas that were hit by the typhoon to come back. We wish those people luck and if there is anything you find out that you can do, then do it with no second thoughts.
Last Modified: Mar 22, 2019