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BEIJING: A powerful typhoon killed eight people, toppled houses, flooded villages and forced nearly 1 million people to flee to safety on China’s eastern coast before weakening into a tropical storm Monday.
Named Morakot, the storm struck after triggering the worst flooding in Taiwan in 50 years, leaving dozens missing and bringing down a six-story hotel. It earlier lashed the Philippines, killing at least 22 people.
Morakot, or emerald in Thai, slammed into China’s Fujian province Sunday afternoon as a typhoon carrying heavy rain and winds of 74miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according the China Meteorological Administration.
At least one child died after a house collapsed in Zhejiang province. By early Monday, the storm packed winds of 52 miles per hour (83kilometers per hour) and churned at about 6 mph (10 kph), it said. Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000houses collapsed, the official news agency said.
About 1 million people were evacuated from China’s eastern coastal provinces.
Taiwan’s Disaster Relief Center said Morakot killed 12 people and another 52 were missing, including 14 people whose makeshift home was swept away. Two policemen were washed away while helping to evacuate villagers in southeastern Taitung county.
In Japan, meanwhile, Typhoon Etau slammed into the western coast Monday. Nine people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides and nine others were missing, police said.
In the northern Philippines, the death toll from Morakot rose to22 Monday with 18 injured and four missing, including three European tourists who were swept away.