Anger in China as typhoon death toll rises
Pastor Dale Morgan
Anger in China as typhoon death toll rises*
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
August 16, 2006
The Guardian
The aftermath of typhoon Saomai in Cangan county in east China's
Zhejiang province. Photograph: Xinhua/AP
Despair turned to fury in eastern China today as the survivors of the
most powerful typhoon to hit the country in half a century accused local
officials of understating the death toll and delaying the search for bodies.
Residents in Shacheng town, Zhejiang province, said an angry mob pulled
the mayor out of his car and ripped his jacket in frustration at what
they described as a lack of advance warning and a slow response in the
aftermath of the disaster, which is known to have claimed more than 295
lives.
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The final count could be considerably higher. Chinese troops and rescue
services were still pulling bodies out of the sea yesterday, more than
five days after Typhoon Saomai struck. More than 200 people are missing.
"We think the real number of dead is much higher than the official
report," said a college student in Shacheng town, who gave only his
family name, Huang.
"Almost every family here has some relatives who died in the typhoon.
More than 100 died in our neighbouring town of Nanzhen. And these aren't
even the worst affected areas. People here believe the death toll could
reach 1,000."
Many of the victims reportedly went out to check their boats during a
lull in the storm, mistakenly thinking the typhoon had passed. They did
not return home. The gusts were so powerful that they capsized a naval
gunboat trying to help fishermen washed into the sea.
Mrs Liu, 52, a local woman, said: "Because Shacheng has always been
regarded as a safe harbour, many fishermen anchored here, but they could
not escape the storm. At the beaches of Liujiang and Long'an, there are
many corpses, but it was only yesterday that the government started to
help people search for their missing relatives."
The government has more than doubled its initial estimate of casualties.
According to news agency reports, 206 were killed in Fujian, 87 in
Zhejiang and two in Jiangxi.
Xinhua reported that at least 2.1 million people have been affected,
18,000 houses destroyed and 56 provincial roads and motorways swamped.
The economic damage to one of China's industrial centres, is estimated
at 4.9bn yuan (£325m).
Some of those who have lost their livelihoods are desperate. Xiang
Yanmu, a fish farmer in Shacheng town, valued his family's losses at
1.7m yuan. "One of my relatives died and we are going bankrupt. I fear
nothing now, not even prison," he said. "The official death toll is a
falsification. In Shacheng alone, I think more than 500 died."
Emotions boiled over yesterday, when an official car - reportedly
carrying Shacheng's mayor, Zhang Zhaohe - drove into the town. "It was
surrounded by people crying over the loss of their relatives," said a
villager. "When the mayor refused to talk to them, the crowd became very
angry and threatened to overturn the car. When the mayor finally got
out, the crowd tore his jacket."
Additional reporting by Huang Lisha