Tropical storm soaks flood-weary southern China*

ZHONGSHAN, China, June 25 (AFP) Jun 25, 2008

Tropical storm Fengshen struck China's southeastern coast Wednesday,
bringing torrential downpours to a region reeling from heavy rains and
deadly flooding since early June.

The storm, which also packed high winds, made landfall in Guangdong
province early in the morning, closing schools and disrupting air
traffic across the region and in neighbouring Macau and Hong Kong,
Xinhua news agency reported.

One crew member of a container ship was missing after falling into the
sea as the storm tossed the vessel off the city of Shanwei in Guangdong,
Xinhua said.

More than 13,000 ships returned to Guangzhou's bustling port in advance
of the storm, the agency said.

Heavy downpours in the nearby city of Zhongshan limited road visibility
to just a few dozen metres (yards), forcing some motorists to stop their
vehicles, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority said 70 inbound or outbound flights
servicing the city were delayed or cancelled due to the storm, Xinhua
reported, adding that dozens of flights were similarly affected at other
Chinese airports.

Fengshen, which means the God of Wind, killed more than 1,000 people in
the Philippines while categorised as a typhoon and took a surprise turn
towards southern China on Tuesday night.

Fengshen, now downgraded to a tropical storm, had been expected to swing
into the South China Sea from the Philippines and track northwards to
Taiwan but instead veered northwest, Hong Kong's observatory said.

Xinhua quoted Guangdong's meteorological authority as saying the storm
would move slowly north and gradually lose strength.

However, it was expected to continue to dump heavy rains on areas of
eastern and southeastern China that have been experiencing deadly downpours.

"It has rained for two straight months already. The weather has been
very strange this year compared to last year," Tang Xueyu, a Zhongshan
school teacher, told AFP. "The rains have really affected local farmers."

The rains earlier in June, the worst in more than a century for some
regions, killed at least 176 people and left 52 missing in flood-related
incidents as of last week, according to Chinese state media.

Fengshen's landfall was preceded by heavy gales and the storm was
expected to dump up to 200 mm (eight inches) of rain on the Guangdong
city of Shenzhen on Wednesday and Thursday, Xinhua said.

The China Central Meteorological Station said heavy rains would sweep
Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces for several days.

The storm triggered a morning suspension of Hong Kong Stock Exchange
trading and paralysed public transport in the southern Chinese territory.

Some tourists were stranded in nearby Macau Tuesday night after ferry
services between Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen were halted.

The Chinese flooding earlier this month forced more than 1.6 million
people to be evacuated, submerged large tracts of farmland and caused
economic losses exceeding 2 billion dollars, according to the government.