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1 Million Chinese Flee Powerful Typhoon

Floodwaters Cause Six-Story Hotel in Taiwan to Collapse Into River

By GILLIAN WONG

posted: 4 HOURS 26 MINUTES AGO

comments: 333

filed under: Weather News, World News

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BEIJING (Aug. 9) - A typhoon slammed into China's east coast Sunday, flooding entire villages, destroying homes and forcing the evacuation of nearly a million residents, after lashing Taiwan with torrential rains that caused the island's worst flooding in 50 years.

Rescuers on rubber dinghies, wearing life jackets and crash helmets, helped stranded villagers in hard-hit areas of China, while officials elsewhere cycled through floodwaters to deliver food to residents trapped in their homes.

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Only rooftops and the highest tree branches were visible above the murky brown water that engulfed part of China's southern Cangnan county. Homes were destroyed and at least one child died after a house collapsed on him in heavy rain in Zhejiang province.

In southern Taiwan, a six-story hotel toppled into a rain-swollen river whose rushing waters had knocked out its foundations.

Typhoon Morakot made landfall in China's Fujian province Sunday, carrying heavy rains and winds of 74 miles per hour, the China Meteorological Administration said.

Taiwan, meanwhile, was recovering after the storm dumped more than 80 inches of rain on some southern counties on Friday and Saturday, the worst flooding to hit the area in half a century, the Central Weather Bureau reported.

Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center said a woman was killed when her vehicle plunged into a ditch in Kaohsiung county in heavy rain Friday, and two men drowned in Pingtung and Tainan. It said 31 were missing and feared dead. Crashing floodwaters had washed away roads and bridges in the island's south.

Nearly 1 million people were evacuated from China's eastern coastal provinces by early Sunday — more than 490,000 people in Zhejiang and 480,000 in neighboring Fujian. Authorities in Fujian called 48,000 boats back to harbor.

Thirty-nine flights from Wenzhou city in Zhejiang were canceled Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Village officials in Zhejiang rode bicycles to distribute drinking water and instant noodles to residents stranded by deep floods, Xinhua said.

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Typhoon Morakot

These images taken from an EETV broadcast on Sunday show a six-story hotel in Taiwan collapsing and falling into a river after floodwaters caused by Typhoon Morakot eroded its base. Officials said the 300 people inside had been evacuated beforehand and that no one was injured.

ETTV Television

Heavy rains before the typhoon made landfall destroyed five houses in the province, burying four adults and a 4-year-old boy in debris, Xinhua said. The child died after emergency treatment failed, it said.

People caught in the storm stumbled with flashlights as darkness enveloped the town of Beibi in Fujian, uprooting trees and inundating farmlands, Xinhua said. Farmers tried to catch fish that were swept off fish farms by rising waves.

Rescuers attempted to reach eight sailors on a cargo ship stranded after strong winds blew it onto a reef off Fujian, Xinhua reported.

In Taitung county, a six-story hotel collapsed and plunged into a river after floodwaters eroded its base, but all 300 people inside were evacuated and uninjured, officials said.

Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, was expected to travel north at about six miles per hour and weaken in strength, the meteorological administration said. It said the storm would also bring strong winds and heavy rains to nearby areas, including Shanghai.

Morakot hit Taiwan late Friday and crossed the island Saturday. Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center reported Sunday that flash floods washed away a home in southern Kaohsiung, leaving 16 people missing. Three were swept away in southeastern Taitung county, including two policemen helping to evacuate villagers.

Twelve others were missing, including three fishermen from a capsized boat and three others whose cars fell into a rain-swollen river, it said.

In southern Pingtung county, 4,000 people were stranded in inundated villages waiting for police boats to rescue them, news media reported.

Morakot was the first typhoon to hit Taiwan this year. Typhoons are common between July and September, often causing injuries and deaths in mountainous regions prone to landslides and flash floods.

Earlier, in the northern Philippines, the typhoon and lingering monsoon rains left 21 people dead and seven others missing in landslides and floodwaters, including three European tourists who were swept away Thursday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday.

The bodies of the Belgian and two French citizens were found Friday, the council said.

Meanwhile, Xinhua said three fishermen died and 26 others were missing from Tropical Storm Goni, which hit Guangdong on Wednesday but had weakened to a tropical depression by Sunday. Helicopters and ships were searching for the missing crew.

Associated Press writers Annie Huang in Taipei and Jim Gomez in Manila contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-08-09 07:17:47

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GN5100

03:59 PMAug 09 2009

ThreeFromIL 03:57 PMAug 09 2009 I just think it's hilarious, I gave just figures for the deficit, no commentary, from the Treasury. 2/3's of the raters disagreed. Hilarious! ********************* I don't disagree. I just think you are a sexual intellectual... a fukinidiot.

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Curr2Will

03:59 PMAug 09 2009

Amazing video. My heart goes out to them.

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Pemaphan

03:59 PMAug 09 2009

Karma from Tibet

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ph9teen53404

03:57 PMAug 09 2009

Love and Charity is the gripping biographical account of Louise Hunter, a powerful woman of great faith. In her search for identity she was destined to walk a path filled with promise and pain. Being oblivious to her purpose in life, Louise began to realize that destiny beckoned her to a higher calling. Mysteriously, misfortune and mistakes transformed this obscure housewife and mother of twenty-one children into a woman of vision and valor. This poignant story recounts how despite ridicule and rejection, Mother Hunter established the Love and Charity Homeless Shelter relying wholly upon her faith, intuition and will to survive. From the depths of her own experiences and in the midst of mounting adversity, Louise reached out to help countless others less fortunate than herself. Now a legend in her own time, Louise Hunter emerges as one of America greatest humanitarians and champion for the cause of the socially disadvantaged. www.hunterfamily21.com

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ThreeFromIL

03:57 PMAug 09 2009

I just think it's hilarious, I gave just figures for the deficit, no commentary, from the Treasury. 2/3's of the raters disagreed. Hilarious!

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ezpz101

03:56 PMAug 09 2009

Hey, I WANT way overpriced health care! I will shout down anyone who don't agre. Look what happened to China! I want the CEOS of the insurance companies and the medicine companies to be very rich, at my expense, and yours! we are the greatest country in the world. Too bad, china, you were socshulist See what happens to a soshulis country

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freedombt10

03:55 PMAug 09 2009

To find the surpressed news reports obama an his cronies don't want you to see or hear,go to #1 Fox news.

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Dusty754

03:55 PMAug 09 2009

MRX2k1 03:46 PMAug 09 2009 Halfahump103:43 PMAug 09 2009OH BOY!!!!! HERE IT COMES OUR SOCIALIST PRESIDENT OR WHAT EVER YOU CALL HIM WILL BE SENDING MONEY TO THESE ******** IN CHINA.UMM IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T FOLLOWED THE ECONOMY CHINA IS RISING AND THE US IS FALLING AND SUCKING UP TO THEM AND BORROWING FROM THEM.. I DON'T THINK THE CHINESE WILL ASK FOR US HELP.. THE LIBERALS HAVE DESTROYED THIS COUNTRY - IF ANYTHING THE CHINESE WILL LIKELY SOON START ASKING FOR INTEREST PAYMENTS ON THE DEBT IN BILLIONS OR TRILLIONS WORTH FROM US THAT WE OWE THEM Hey moron. You should be thanking George Walker Bush for all the money we owe China or did you forget the jackasses wars he started in Afghanistan and Iraq? Geez stupid. our military and the suppliers of military needs do not do things for free you boneheaded mental midget.

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TrekkinBob

03:55 PMAug 09 2009

Thor, Apollo, Chilthulu, Ra, Dionisis, Vishnu, Jehovah, and Jesus, can kiss my hairy ass. Most of you don't believe in most of these. Some of us have just gone one invisible god further.

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freedombt10

03:54 PMAug 09 2009

To find news station that will question an challenge obamas ways an views go to #1 Fox news they will.

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