The alarm: The typhoon drowns the cities

 

 

China  

Warning for new downpours in China - 350,000 evacuated after typhoon Doksuri  

130 million people could be affected  

 

Petter J Larsson  

 

Updated 15:36 | Published at 2:22 p.m  

 

News 

  

Typhoon Doksuri has forced more than 350,000 people to leave their homes in China - after several large cities were drowned in torrential rain. 

 

Now authorities are announcing a weather warning for new storms that could affect 130 million people.  

China has been hit hard by typhoon Doksuri, and now the country's authorities have issued a red weather warning for heavy downpours in, among other places, the capital Beijing. 

  

Doksuri's progress has caused flooding in several large cities - and an estimated 130 million people, writes the Daily Mail.

 

The typhoon, which is one of the strongest storms to hit the billion-nation country in years, came from Taiwan and the Philippines and swept across northern China on Saturday, bringing heavy rainfall as a result. 

  

The weather warning applies from midnight to Sunday, in areas where hundreds of millions of people live - including the city of Tianjin and Hebei and Shandong provinces, according to local meteorological services, according to the Daily Mail.  

 

Worst since 1961  

 

In the capital Beijing, the risk of rain and storm disasters is between medium and high. China is preparing for 100 millimeters of rainfall over an area of 220,000 square kilometers - where 130 million people could be affected.  

 

In videos from China, residents swim for their lives with life jackets in cities where the water level is so high that cars and shops almost completely disappeared under the masses of rain. 

 

The chaotic weather is forcing many of China's residents to stay at home, although pictures show rescue workers carrying children and the elderly trapped by the rain on their backs. Others have managed to escape their homes on flooded streets in small rowing boats.  

 

In the city of Fuzhou, on China's east coast, the subway was closed on Saturday - because several stations were filled with water. Fuzhou and its neighboring cities have in recent days been hit by their heaviest rainfall since 1961.  

 

 

Residents wade through flooded streets in the city of Fazhou in the aftermath of Typhoon Doksuri. Photo: AP  

 

350,000 evacuated  

 

In the city of Quanzhou, also on the east coast, 39 people were injured and over half a million homes lost power.  

 

"Doksuri's intensity continues to weaken but the impact is far from over," China's Meteorological Service said in a statement. The agency is warning the public to be vigilant and avoid high-risk areas in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region where localized rainfall of 600 millimeters is still expected.  

 

Doksuri, which swept across China on Friday, is the most powerful typhoon to hit the country this year. It forced more than 350,000 people to evacuate their homes and caused societal losses equivalent to SEK 700 million, according to state media, according to the Daily Mail.  

 

In the Philippines, 39 people have died from the stormy weather that lasted in the island nation for a week.