1.3 Million flee as storm hits China
Pastor Dale Morgan
1.3 Million flee as storm hits China*
Thursday, August 10, 2006 Posted: 1100 GMT (1900 HKT)
BEIJING, China -- Authorities have evacuated 1.3 million people from
their homes in southeastern China as a super typhoon swirled towards them.
Typhoon Saomai -- which has already dumped torrential rains on Taiwan --
made landfall Thursday afternoon, according to Taiwan's central weather
bureau.
The typhoon had been gathering strength as it neared China, and is a
category four storm, packing sustained winds of 216 kilometers per hour
(134 miles per hour).
One of three storms to have threatened east Asia in the past few days,
Saomai made landfall in in Cangnan county near the booming city of
Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, Reuters news agency quoted state
television as saying.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Wenzhou airport had closed and hundreds of passengers were stranded,
Reuters quoted one airport manager as saying.
Saomai, the Vietnamese word for the planet Venus, will be the eighth big
storm to hit China during this year's typhoon season.
The storm was headed towards areas that were pounded by Tropical Storm
Bilis, which killed more than 600 people last month.
Another typhoon, Prapiroon, lashed China's southern coast last week,
killing at least 80 people, The Associated Press reported.
At least 569,000 people have been evacuated from Fujian province while
another 760,000 have moved from the vulnerable coastal areas of
Zhejiang, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Nearly 34,000 vessels in Zhejiang and more than 36,000 vessels in Fujian
returned to port, the agency reported.
On Wednesday, Saomai passed across the Japanese island of Okinawa,
prompting airlines to cancel 141 flights and affecting 24,000
passengers, AP reported.
Worsening the potential threat, another tropical storm, called Bopha, is
trailing behind Saomai and is also heading towards the Chinese coast.
Bopha crossed Taiwan overnight, with sustained winds of 65 kph (40 mph),
Taiwan's weather bureau said.