BEIJING - Tropical Storm Prapiroon has killed 57 in south China as of Sunday
with 16 people still missing, the official Xinhua news agency said, as the storm
forced the relocation of more than 660,000 people.
Over 5 million people were hit by torrential rains after the storm made
landfall in the southern province of Guangdong on Thursday evening, triggering
landslides, destroying crops and damaging thousands of homes, local officials
have said.
Direct economic losses were earlier estimated by local officials at 2.4
billion yuan (US$300 million).
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| Chinese workers
mend river dikes which was damaged by the torrentials brought by the
Typhoon Prapiroon in Qingyuan, Guangdong Province on August 5, 2006.
[Xinhua] |
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The
latest increase in the fatalities was from Guangxi, where typhoon Prapiroon has
weakened into a tropical storm but kept its influence, with another seven deaths
in typhoon-triggered disasters, according to the Guangxi regional department of
civil affairs.
Accident of flash flood and landslide brought by typhoon in Laibin and
Hengxian, both in Guangxi, killed ten.
A flash flood occurred at a private forest farm in Fenghuang Township of
Laibin City at 3:20 a.m. on Saturday, sweeping away 13 migrant workers who were
working on the farm.
Prapiroon brought along torrential rains and strong winds after it began to
influence the city from Friday noon, the department said.
The transient workers, who were all from Hunan Province, built a temporary
shelter in the nearby valley for the nights. So when the flash flood occurred,
they became victims.
The rescuers saved only six of them and found six corpses. One more migrant
worker is still missing.
Three more people were killed and one more injured in a landslide happening
in Luming Village of Hengzhou Township, Hengxian County at 7 a.m. on Saturday as
one side of a civilian house fell, burying a family of four, said information
from the flood control and drought relief headquarters of Hengxian County.
The three killed were all female. And the injured is the only man in the
family.
One more death was also reported in Bobai, a county in Yulin of Guangxi,
after Typhoon Prapiroon entered Guangxi from Bobai early on Friday, washing it
with showers from time to time, said local sources.
Typhoon Prapiroon made landfall at the South China coastal area between
Yangxi County and Dianbai County in western Guangdong at 7:20 p.m. Thursday,
leaving at least 38 dead and 14 more missing in Guangdong alone.
