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Tropical storm hits China's SE coast

(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-25 14:41

Tropical storm Fengshen hit the southeast coast of China on Wednesday with heavy rains and strong winds, bringing new misery to a region already struggling to recover from this month's floods.

Fengshen, which killed hundreds in the Philippines as a typhoon, made landfall Wednesday morning with winds of up to 51 miles per hour in the economic zone of Shenzhen, whose meteorological station forecast heavy rains of up to nearly 8 inches Wednesday and Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

A man rides his motorcycle through a flooded street caused by tropical storm Fengshen in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, June 25, 2008. [Agencies]

Flooding in China's southeast earlier this month killed at least 63 people, forced the evacuation of at least 1.66 million and caused billions of dollars in damage in a region anchored by the country's manufacturing capital, the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province.

Related readings: Tropical storm lands in China East China braces for Fengshen Typhoon Fengshen rolls over Manila New round of rainstorms worsen flood Flood death toll in south China hits 63 1.3 million ordered to evacuate for flood

Flood control authorities in Shenzhen told Xinhua no deaths had been reported as of 8 am. Meteorologists in the region said the storm was expected to weaken as it moved north and further inland.

Both Shenzhen and nearby Hong Kong stopped school classes Wednesday, and more than 13,000 ships in Guangdong province came back to harbor before the storm made landfall, Xinhua reported.

The storm also shut down Hong Kong's financial markets and courts. The government said there were at least nine reports of flooding in the city.

The storm was forecast to hit Ganzhou City, in Jiangxi, late on Wednesday and was expected to affect the province for 36 hours, the provincial meteorological station said.

Two teams from Jiangxi flood control headquarters had been dispatched to the affected areas to help with evacuations and preparations against floods, landslides and mud-rock flows.

The storm's heavy rains will also sweep the provinces of Fujian, Guangxi, and Hunan, Xinhua reported the China Central Meteorological Station as saying.

Fengshen left more than 800 passengers and crew missing in the Philippines this week after the typhoon capsized a ferry. Only four dozen survivors have been found. The storm's toll on shore in the Philippines included 227 dead and 275 missing in the worst-hit region, with dozens reported killed elsewhere by floods and landslides.