23rd Sep 2013 11:38
BEIJING (Alliance News) - At least 25 people died in China and 23 in the Philippines after Typhoon Usagi swept over the South China Sea and caused floods in southern China's Guangdong province on Monday, reports said.
Residents of Guangdong's worst-hit city, Shanwei, said the typhoon, which hit land in China late Sunday, was the strongest for 30 years.
At least 13 people died in Shanwei, while 12 died in three other areas of Guangdong, some 310,000 were evacuated and several thousand homes were destroyed, authorities said.
"The toll in our city included seven deaths at a railway construction site," state media quoted Xiao Zhan, deputy head of the Shanwei Water Authority, as saying.
"The majority of casualties were due to the collapse of houses where people took shelter," Xiao said.
In nearby Shantou city, a local resident told /by/telephone/DP seawater pushed by the typhoon had flooded the streets.
"This time it is quite serious," said the resident, who asked to be identified by the single name Jack.
"The road in front of my apartment is flooded by about 20-30 centimetres of seawater, and I heard that the houses of people living closer to the sea were flooded up to about chest height," he said.
"The electricity was cut off from yesterday until around 7 am this morning," he said.
The owner of a coastal restaurant in Shantou's Nanao county said his building was flooded by seawater after it was hit by a wave "about 2 metres high."
One person died in Guangdong's Jieyang city after being struck in the chest by glass from a window pane dislodged by the strong wind, the official Xinhua news agency said.
School classes and all air, rail and shipping services were suspended on Monday in 14 cities in Guangdong, as well as the nearby Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao, the agency said.
In the Philippines, 23 people died as heavy rain battered the main island of Luzon, officials said.
Twenty bodies were recovered in landslides near the towns of Subic, San Marcelino and Castillejos in the northern region of Zambales, while three people drowned in Bataan and Batangas provinces, to the west and south of the capital, respectively.
Subic was cut off by flooding and landslides triggered by the rain from Typhoon Usagi, and could only be accessed by boat, Mayor Jay Khonghun was quoted as saying by news reports.
City officials in Olongapo, 80 kilometres north-west of Manila, said the US embassy had agreed to their request for help by a nearby US Navy ship, as many residents had taken refuge on their roofs.
Usagi killed three people in Vietnam last week, but the storm was predicted to start weakening from Tuesday.
Copyright dpa