A child walks in water-soaked street at
a residential community in Rui'an city, east China's Zhejiang Province,
Aug. 19, 2007. Typhoon Wipha packing winds of 45 meters per second landed
east China's Zhejiang Province early Wednesday and moved northwestward.
(Xinhua/Huang Shengang)
BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Effective preparations
and accurate weather forecasts greatly reduced the number of casualties caused
by typhoon Wipha, Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological
Administration (CMA), said on Thursday.
"Up to now only five people have
died from landslides triggered by the heavy rain. The number of casualties is
rare in history," said Zheng.
The fact that the central government has paid great
attention to natural disasters was one of the reasons for the few casualties,
while meteorological authorities stepped up forecasts to allow local governments
to have time to evacuate people, Zheng added.
A total of 2.67 million people in Zhejiang, Fujian,
Shanghai and Jiangsu had been relocated by Wednesday, said the Ministry of Civil
Affairs. The typhoon destroyed more than 9,600 houses and damaged 42,000 others.
In Zhejiang alone, 1.79 million people were evacuated
before Wipha struck, the largest mass evacuation in the history of the province.
More than half a million were evacuated because their houses were in poor
condition.
Typhoon Wipha hit Wenzhou, in Zhejiang Province, at
2:30 a.m. Wednesday but was later downgraded to a tropical storm.
It turned into a temperate depression at noon on
Thursday in the Yellow Sea, and was still weakening, according to the Liaoning
Meteorological Observatory.
HANGZHOU, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed
after a Ferrari car veered off the road and plunged into a river on Wednesday in
east China's Zhejiang Province, where Typhoon Wipha was playing havoc, local
police said on Thursday. Full Story
NANJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- A weakened typhoon Wipha is
moving northwards after crashing into east China's coast on Wednesday morning,
unleashing heavy rains and forcing thousands to be evacuated. Full Story
