BEIJING – Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China on Friday, as Typhoon Gaemi brought torrential rains already responsible for five deaths in nearby Taiwan.
Gaemi was the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years when it made landfall on Thursday, flooding parts of the island’s second-biggest city.
Typhoon Gaemi exacerbated seasonal rains in the Philippines on its path to Taiwan, triggering flooding and landslides that killed 30 people, according to police figures on Friday.
A tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of oil sank off Manila on Thursday, with authorities racing to offload the cargo and avoid an environmental catastrophe.
In Japan, Record heavy rain forced the evacuation of thousands of people across parts of northern Japan as rivers burst their banks, washing away bridges and cars, officials and media reports said Friday.
At least one person was killed and four missing after the downpours in Yamagata and Akita prefectures on the main island of Honshu. AFP
A man in his 60s was missing after a landslide at roadworks in Yuzawa City, while an 86-year-old man was unaccounted for after last being seen on a river bank in Akita City, police told AFP. AFP
One body was found in Akita City, media reports said.
A local official told AFP in Yamagata, where two rivers burst their banks, that “three people, including two police officers who were on a mission searching for a missing man, are unaccounted for”.
Two parts of Yamagata prefecture recorded the most rain in 24 hours since records began in 1976, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Friday.
Shinjo recorded 389 millimeters and Sakata 289 millimeters.
Footage showed raging brown waters sweeping away several vehicles including a police car.
Authorities issued evacuation advisories to more than 200,000 people, the fire and disaster management agency said.
At least 4,000 people evacuated to shelters, public broadcaster NHK reported.
About 3,060 households were without power, 1,100 had no running water.
Some motorways were closed in the area and Shinkansen bullet trains suspended operations, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
The military was sent to Yamagata to join rescue activities carried out by police and fire department officials, he said.
Japan’s weather agency this week issued its highest emergency alert for heavy rain for Sakata and Yuza in Yamagata prefecture.
It later downgraded the warning by one notch in the country’s five-tier warning system, but called for the public to stay vigilant for potential landslides and flooding.
The JMA forecasts 100 to 200 millimeters of rain per day will continue for the next three days.
It had weakened by the time it made landfall in China’s eastern Fujian province shortly before 8:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) on Thursday, state media said.
China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with heavy rains across the east and south coming as much of the north has sweltered under successive heatwaves.
The country is by far the world’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Chinese authorities warned Typhoon Gaemi was bringing with it torrential rains that could cause flooding.
They have relocated more than 290,000 people in Fujian and shut down public transport, offices, schools and markets in some cities.
In neighboring Zhejiang province, footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV Friday showed streets turned into rivers, trees strewn over roads and bikes struggling through knee-high waters.
The province’s Wenzhou city — home to nine million people — has issued its highest warning for rainstorms and evacuated nearly 7,000 people, CCTV said.
The typhoon will also bring heavy rainfall to central Jiangxi and Henan, state media said.
Guangdong, China’s most populous province, on Friday suspended some passenger train services ahead of the typhoon’s expected arrival, CCTV said.
Citing the official China Weather Network, the broadcaster said the typhoon was moving northwestward at about 20 kilometers per hour.
It will “gradually weaken” as it makes its way to Jiangxi on Friday late afternoon, it said.
No deaths or injuries have yet been reported in mainland China.
The north of the country has this week also been hit by showers, with state media saying Friday that heavy rains had killed one and left three missing in the northwestern province of Gansu.
At a meeting of the country’s top leadership chaired by President Xi Jinping on Thursday, officials urged local authorities to stay “highly vigilant and proactive” as the country entered peak flooding season. AFP
