Typhoon Pounds China's Fujian After Lashing Taiwan, Manila

A huge typhoon pounded coastal towns on China’s Fujian province with heavy rains and strong winds on Friday after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines and Taiwan.

Typhoon Gaemi is the most powerful storm to hit the country this year and reportedly killed dozens of people as it swept through Taiwan after saturating the Philippine capital Manila days before.

Xinhua news agency said the typhoon had affected almost 630,000 people in southeastern Fujian province, with almost half of that number having to be relocated.

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Gaemi was still packing winds of up to 100.8 kph (62.6 mph) near its centre, having eased slightly from 119 kph logged on Thursday night when it landed in the Fujian city of Putian.

While Gaemi has been downgraded as a tropical storm due to the slower wind speeds, its vast cloud-bands remain a significant flood risk, particularly to rivers in central China already elevated due to an earlier bout of summer rains.

Tropical storms worsening

Scientists have warned that global warming was worsening tropical storms, making them less frequent but much more intense, according to a report published on Friday.

Hours ahead of the typhoon’s arrival, the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s politburo, helmed by President Xi Jinping, held a special meeting on flood control and urged cadres across the country to protect lives.

Efforts must be made to prevent any breaches of major rivers and the collapse of large and key medium-sized reservoirs, according to a readout of the meeting published by Xinhua.

Due to the typhoon, 72 townships across Fujian recorded an accumulated precipitation exceeding 250 mm (9.8 inches), with the highest reaching 512.8 mm, local weather bureaus said.

By late Friday, Gaemi is expected to reach Jiangxi province, home to Poyang lake, China’s largest freshwater lake.

On Thursday, Gaemi swept through Taiwan with super-gales of up to 227 kph (141 mph) and dumped over 1,800 mm of rain in the island’s southern mountains, flooding several cities and towns. It injured more than 500 people and killed five.

The typhoon also sank a freighter off the Taiwanese coast and killed 32 people in the Philippines. Officials in Manila declared a “state of calamity” after widespread flooding, while a marine tanker carrying industrial fuel also sank in rough seas off the Philippines.