Typhoon causes $1bn damage

2007-10-09 11:51

Shanghai - Southeast China was digging out from flooding and landslides on Tuesday after remnants of Typhoon Krosa deluged the region with torrential rains, causing damage estimated at more than $1bn (R6.85bn).

The storm dissipated late on Monday, leaving flooded streets and fields, washed-out roads and railway lines and thousands of destroyed buildings, the official Xinhua News Agency and state television reports said.

There were no reports of casualties from Krosa, downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm on Sunday.

Authorities arranged the evacuations of nearly 1.6 million people in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, to the south of Shanghai.

In Shanghai, China's biggest city, waterfront walkways along the Huangpu River were flooded as the storm dumped up to 1.5 metres of rain in areas upstream.

A train was derailed by a mudslide between the cities of Wenzhou and Jinhua in Zhejiang province, southwest of Shanghai, state-run Zhejiang Television reported late Monday. But rescue workers said its 600 passengers and crew escaped uninjured.

Television footage showed streets flooded waist-deep in several provincial cities.

China's typhoon season came relatively late this year: Krosa - the Cambodian word for crane - was the second big storm to hit the region in a month.

- AP