Residents gather to see huge waves stirred up by strong wind as typhoon Soudelor draws near the mainland of China in Wenling, east China's Zhejiang province, on Aug. 8. AFP - Getty Images
BEIJING — A typhoon was pounding southeast China late Saturday, leaving more than a million homes without power after lashing Taiwan, where it downed trees, traffic lights and power lines, and left six people dead and four missing.
Typhoon Soudelor hit the city of Putian in Fujian province late Saturday night and was expected to move across the region, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Authorities in southeast China evacuated about 163,000 people and ordered around 32,000 ships back to port ahead of the typhoon, Xinhua reported. More than 7,000 soldiers and police were on standby, provincial authorities said.
The provincial capital of Fuzhou was being battered by heavy rain and strong winds, and all flights to the city were canceled, Xinhua said. The neighboring province of Jiangxi also issued a typhoon alert.
Even before the storm made landfall, strong winds caused power outages to more than 1.41 million household in the province, Xinhua said.
The U.S. government was sending more aid to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which was battered by Soudelor last Sunday. The powerful typhoon snapped utility poles and toppled trees, leaving residents without electricity and running water.
President Barack Obama has declared the Northern Marianas a disaster area and ordered federal aid to help the U.S. territory.
A total of 101 people were hurt in Taiwan and more than 3 million households lost electricity as the powerful storm left streets strewn with fallen trees. All 279 domestic flights were cancelled today, as well as at least 37 international flights.
An 8-year-girl and her mother died when they were swept out to sea Thursday from a beach on the east coast, the official Central News Agency reported. The girl’s twin sister remains missing.
Other casualties included a firefighter who was killed and another injured after being hit by a drunken driver as they attempted to move a fallen tree in the island’s south.
The centre of the storm made landfall in eastern Taiwan at 4:40 am today. By mid-morning, Soudelor was packing maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometres per hour, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said.
The center of the storm made landfall in eastern Taiwan before daybreak Saturday. By mid-morning, Soudelor was packing maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.
The typhoon weakened later Saturday with top winds of up to 89 mph while moving away from the island in a northwesterly direction.
Yesterday afternoon, marine police rescued 55 university students and teachers trapped on a small island where they had been attending a summer camp, after strong gales stopped ferry services, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Heavy rains were forecast through Sunday morning in the northern part of Fujian. — AP
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