China typhoon death toll reaches 15, dozens missing

BEIJING (Reuters) – The death toll from Typhoon Longwang in
China climbed to 15 people and dozens of military students were
still missing, media reported on Tuesday.

In the central province of Hubei authorities evacuated
about 24,000 people from along the banks of a tributary of the
Yangtze River, in what the official Xinhua news agency said was
the worst flooding since 1981.

Xinhua said 730,000 people in all had been evacuated to
protect them from the 19th typhoon to hit China this year, in
the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong.

The China Daily said that 59 Chinese military students were
still missing after torrential rain from the typhoon rushed
down a hillside and swept away their school buildings in the
southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou.

State television said life was returning to normal in
Fujian, and rail services out of Fuzhou had resumed.

More heavy rain is expected to fall in the next two days in
the province of Hubei and the local government is on alert for
further flooding along the Hanjiang River, Xinhua said.

The typhoon, which raged across Taiwan on the weekend
before moving on to China’s adjacent Fujian province, also
damaged 60,000 hectares of crops and caused economic damage of
around 1.2 billion yuan ($148 million).

(US$=8.09)