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28 March 2024

13 people dead as Fanapi sweeps across China

Published
By AFP

Thirteen people died and 33 others went missing as tropical storm Fanapi swept across southern China this week, triggering severe flooding and mudslides, state media reported Wednesday.

Fanapi made landfall on the mainland Monday, one day after slamming Taiwan with heavy rains, killing two people and leaving more than 100 injured on the island.

All of the deaths occurred in southern China's Guangdong province, which saw its worst rains in a century, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Five of the victims died after a tailings dam burst, while two others were killed when their house collapsed, the report said.

Of the 33 missing, 25 disappeared in a rain-triggered mudslide, the report said.
Fanapi - the 11th typhoon to hit southern China this year - is moving west at a speed of up to 10 kilometres (six miles) an hour, bringing torrential rains in its wake, meteorologists said.

The hard-hit city of Yangchun saw 550 millimetres (22 inches) of rain in 24 hours, Xinhua reported.

At its strongest point, when it hit Taiwan on Sunday, Fanapi was packing winds of up to 220 kilometres an hour and dumped up to 100 centimetres (39 inches) of rain in the south of the island.

Industrial and agricultural damage wrought by the typhoon was estimated at around five billion Taiwan dollars (158 million US), according to the government in Taipei.

Just over a year ago, Typhoon Morakot devastated southern Taiwan, leaving more than 700 people dead or missing in one of the island's worst natural disasters.