Typhoon Saomai batters China

Friday, August 11, 2006 

Typhoon Saomai as seen from space

Category 5

Super Typhoon Saomai made landfall in the eastern province Zhejiang in China around 5:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon. By Friday evening Saomai had left a path of destruction in Zhejiang and neighboring province Fujian. Over 100 people have been reported dead with even more missing. An estimated 3.5 million people were affected by the storm, some 1.6 million of whom were evacuated.

Reports from the civil affairs bureau tell of large-scale material destruction. In Zhejiang, 18,000 houses were destroyed and in Fujian, 32,000. Hundreds of thousands of buildings have been damaged. Phone and power lines were knocked down and outages were wide-spread.

With wind speeds of 216 km/h (135 mph) at the time of landfall it is the strongest typhoon to hit China since August 1, 1956, when a storm with wind speeds of 244 km/h killed 4,900 people.

Emergency plans have been implemented and supplies are being sent in from other provinces. The central government has allocated 166 million yuan to assist the affected region.

Related

• "Record typhoon Chanchu batters south China" — Wikinews, May 18, 2006

Sources

• Mu Xuequan, editor. "Saomai lashes east China, causing huge casualties" — Xinhua News Agency, August 11, 2006

• David Fickling. "100 killed as typhoon hits China" — Guardian Unlimited, August 11, 2006

• Ben Blanchard. "Typhoon kills over 100 in China" — Reuters, August 11, 2006

• "China typhoon's death toll rises" — BBC News Online, August 11, 2006

Sister links

• Typhoon Saomai on Wikipedia.