China hit by strongest typhoon in 50 years

BEIJING – The most powerful typhoon to hit China in five decades raged across its southeastern coast Thursday, capsizing ships and destroying homes after 1.5 million people evacuated. At least 75 people were killed and dozens were injured.

The death toll was put at two Thursday as the storm raged, but it quickly rose today with recovery efforts under way.

Most of the deaths occurred in Zhejiang province, where the bodies of 43 people, including eight children, were discovered in Cangnan county amid the debris of collapsed houses, Xinhua said.

An additional 28 people were killed and three were missing in other parts of Zhejiang, Xinhua said, but did not give details. In neighboring Fujian province, two people were killed, it said. Officials said at least 80 people were injured and 19 reported missing across the region. The typhoon was also blamed for at least two deaths in the Philippines earlier.

Torrential rains were forecast in the next three days as the typhoon churned inland across crowded areas where Tropical Storm Bilis killed more than 600 people last month.

Saomai, with winds up to 135 mph, made landfall at the town of Mazhan in coastal Zhejiang province and was moving northwest at 12 mph, Xinhua said, citing weather officials.

Eight Taiwanese sailors were missing after two ships capsized in a harbor in Fujian, while four Chinese were missing after their ship struck a reef, the agency reported. Seven others were reported missing in the Philippines, officials said.

Saomai, dubbed a “super typhoon” by Chinese forecasters due to its huge size and high wind speeds, was the most powerful typhoon to hit China since the founding of the communist government in 1949, Xinhua said, citing the Zhejiang provincial weather bureau.

Before the storm’s arrival, 990,000 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas of Zhejiang and 569,000 from the neighboring coastal province of Fujian, Xinhua said. The area is about 950 miles south of Beijing, the Chinese capital, which was not affected by the storm.

In the Philippines, more than 200 houses on stilts were destroyed and a child was killed and another was reported missing as waves up to 10 feet tall ravaged the coast of Bongao, before dawn Wednesday, provincial Gov. Sadikul Sahali said.