CENTRAL CHINA FLOOD TOLL RISES TO 51; COUNTRY NOW PREPARES FOR TYPHOON

BEIJING: A typhoon is forecast to bring heavy rains to Taiwan and coastal China over the weekend, days after the worst flooding on record in a central Chinese province caused at least 51 deaths.

Forecasters say Typhoon In-fa is moving towards China and expected to make landfall in Zhejiang province either on Sunday afternoon or early Monday morning.

Zhejiang’s bureau of emergency management said on its microblog on Friday that it is raising its risk warning to the second-highest level and calling on all localities to take preventative measures.

Those usually include recalling fishing boats to port and relocating people living in vulnerable coastal communities.

Fujian province to the south has issued similar orders.

The forecast follows flooding earlier this week in the central province of Henan as rivers and reservoirs overtopped their banks. The 51 deaths reported included 12 people who were trapped by rising waters in the subway system in the hard-hit provincial capital of Zhengzhou.

State media said all the deaths had been recorded in Zhengzhou, although other parts of Henan have also been hit by flooding.

Nearly 400,000 people were displaced in the city of 12 million that is a major hub for industry and transportation, and losses were estimated at around $10 billion.

At noon, In-fa was about 370km east of the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, moving northnorthwest at about 12km per hour, according to Hong Kong Observatory.