Toll from Typhoon Saomai jumps to 73
(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-11 10:16 China's weather bureau forecast a summer of powerful typhoons, saying a warm
Pacific current would create bigger storms and weather patterns over Tibet would
draw them farther inland.
Bilis set off flooding and landslides as far inland as Hunan province,
hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the coast.
Most of the deaths from Bilis occurred in areas away from coastal communities
that are protected by dike networks and have long experience in evacuating
flood-prone areas.
Farther south on China's coast, Guangdong province and the Guangxi region
were lashed last week by Typhoon Prapiroon, which killed at least 80 people in
floods and landslides.
In the Philippines, two people died and seven were missing after waves and
heavy rains from Saomai battered coastal villages, officials said.
More than 200 houses built on stilts were destroyed as waves up to three
meters (10 feet) high ravaged the coast of Bongao, the capital of the southern
province of Tawi-Tawi, before dawn Wednesday, according to provincial Gov.
Sadikul Sahali.
A child died and another was reported missing, he said.
Elsewhere, a man was killed as waves washed away about 200 shanties in
seaside villages in Talisay, a city on the central island of Cebu, the civil
defense office said.
Even as Saomai stormed ashore, Chinese forecasters were already closely
watching Tropical Storm Bopha, which trailed behind it farther out in the
Pacific.
Late Thursday, Bopha was about 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of
Guangdong and moving west with winds of 47 kph (29 mph), according to the Hong
Kong Observatory.
|
