‘Dragon king’ heads for China
Typhoon injures at least 34 in Taiwan 200,000 evacuated from boats to land
TAIPEI— Typhoon Longwang headed for China after swirling through Taiwan yesterday, injuring at least 34 people. As the storm approached, more than 200,000 people were evacuated from boats to land in China’s eastern province of Fujian, state media said. Most of those injured in Taiwan suffered cuts from broken glass, while strong winds lifted roofs off homes, an ancient temple and a university dormitory in the east coast mountain city of Hualien, where the typhoon made landfall at dawn, according to disaster response officials at Taiwan’s National Fire Administration.
“ The damage and casualty situation right now looks as if we have had some good fortune in the midst of this misfortune,” Premier Frank Hsieh told reporters at the government’s disaster centre. The storm also delayed President Chen Shui-bian’s return home after a 12-day visit to South America, forcing him to land at Indonesia’s Bali island.
Longwang, or “ dragon king” in Chinese, had maximum sustained winds of 137 km/h and gusts of up to 173 km/ h, but weakened as it passed over Taiwan’s central mountains, said officials of Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.
Still, domestic flights and rail services were cancelled. The typhoon also caused power blackouts of at least half a million households, mostly in Hualien, officials said. The centre of the storm was projected to make landfall in China’s eastern province of Fujian later yesterday.
China’s state- run CCTV predicted that Longwang would bring torrential rains to Fujian and the southern province of Guangdong late yesterday and today.
Regular ferry services between Fujian’s city of Xiamen and nearby islands, which lie close to Taiwan, had been suspended, CCTV said. The official Xinhua news agency said Fujian province issued an alert and called fishing boats back to port. Xinhua also said people living in coastal areas, close to river banks and areas susceptible to landslides or mudslides or flooding were being relocated to safe areas in Fujian. Typhoons frequently menace Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and eastern China during the storm season that lasts from early summer to late autumn. They have triggered deadly flash floods and landslides in Taiwan, a crowded, mountainous island. Typhoon Haitang killed 12 people in July, with three still listed as missing.
In 2001, one of Taiwan’s deadliest years for storms, Typhoon Toraji, killed 200 people. A few months later, Typhoon Nari caused Taipei’s worst flooding on record and killed 100.