Typhoon Forces Mass Evacuation in China
Pastor Dale Morgan
Typhoon Forces Mass Evacuation in China*
Thursday August 3, 2006 5:31 PM
By AUDRA ANG
Associated Press Writer
BEIJING (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated in
southern China as Typhoon Prapiroon slammed into the mainland on
Thursday, pounding an area already battered by storms with more heavy
rains and winds, state media said.
Prapiroon made landfall at 7:20 p.m. (7:20 a.m. EDT) along a stretch of
coastal Guangdong province, including the cities of Yangjiang and
Dianbai, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said the storm was moving
inland northwest at a speed of 9 to 12 mph.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
State television showed raincoat-clad reporters braving downpours and
gusts of wind that bent trees and whipped up huge waves along
Guangdong's coast.
Stormy weather was forecast from Thursday to Saturday for the provinces
of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hainan, China's southernmost
island and a popular tourist destination.
The area was lashed last month by Tropical Storm Bilis, which killed
more than 600 people in flooding and landslides.
Authorities evacuated about 400,000 residents in low-lying areas of
Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, which lies about 370 miles southwest of
Hong Kong in the South China Sea, Xinhua said. Ferry and railway
services linking Hainan to the mainland were also suspended.
Some 84,000 people were forced to flee their homes in Guangxi, Xinhua
said. It didn't give a breakdown of the evacuations in Guangdong and Hainan.
A total of 62,023 fishing boats and other vessels returned to port in
the three provinces, Xinhua said. Rescue teams were ordered to be on
alert for possible floods and landslides.
Prapiroon, which killed six people in the Philippines, is ``as strong,
if not stronger'' than Bilis, said Gao Shuanzhu, a senior official at
the China's national observatory, according to Xinhua.
In Hong Kong, at least one person was reported injured on Wednesday when
empty shipping containers were toppled by high winds at a container
terminal.
In separate incidents, a cargo vessel and barge ran aground on islands
off the territory's coast amid the storm, a spokesman from the
Government Flying Service said Thursday. Dozens of crew members were
rescued and there were no reports of injuries or deaths, spokesman Jack
Chak said.
By 6 p.m. Thursday, 130 flights had been delayed, 143 canceled and 66
redirected, Hong Kong's airport reported. Ferry services were suspended.
Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's biggest airline, said it canceled
the arrival and departure of all flights in Hong Kong until 9 a.m.
Friday because of excessive winds.
Philippine authorities said two other people were missing following
lightning storms and flooding caused by Prapiroon, which struck the
country as a tropical storm. About 15,000 others were evacuated as parts
of the northern Philippines remained inundated.
This year's typhoon season in China started unusually early and storms
have already killed more than 1,460 people, mainly in the densely
populated southeastern provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan
and Jiangxi.
Chinese officials estimate more than 1 million houses have been damaged
and millions of acres of farmland and forests destroyed.
Prapiroon, named after the Thai rain god, is the region's eighth major
storm of the season. It comes in the wake of last week's Typhoon Kaemi,
which killed at least 35 people in China and left dozens missing in
flooding and landslides.
Also Thursday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies issued a $4.8 million appeal to provide food, tents,
and quilts for 240,000 people left homeless by floods unleashed by
typhoon downpours.