At least 13 people have been killed and 16 have gone missing as powerful typhoon Lekima made landfall in eastern China, CCTV reported on Saturday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2019) At least 13 people have been killed and 16 have gone missing as powerful typhoon Lekima made landfall in eastern China, CCTV reported on Saturday.

The ninth typhoon to strike China this year reached the Zhejiang province late on Friday. China's meteorological service announced a red alert level over the typhoon.

Meteorologists warned that Lekima would bring strong winds, rainfall and flooding to China's southeastern regions.

Over 3 million people are currently residing in the affected areas. The typhoon has already destroyed over 200 buildings and damaged another 3,200.

All in all, the Chinese authorities evacuated over 1 million people over the typhoon. About 250,000 of them were evacuated from Shanghai, the country's biggest city and the world's financial hub. </s> Typhoon Lekima has left 32 dead, 16 missing, one million evacuees, five million affected people and losses of more than $2.2 billion in China.

Most of the deaths occurred in Yongjia County, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where the storm, the most powerful to hit the country since 2014, touched down on Saturday. </s> SHANGHAI: At least 13 people are dead and 16 others missing in a landslide after Typhoon Lekima hit eastern China, state media reported Saturday (Aug 10).

The landslide occurred in the municipality of Wenzhou, which was in the path of the storm as it made landfall overnight, CCTV said.

Super Typhoon Lekima, which slammed into southeastern China early Saturday, brought torrential rain and heavy winds that knocked out power, downed thousands of trees and forced more than one million people from their homes.

The monster storm made landfall in the early hours in Wenling City packing winds of 187kmh, and was expected to churn up the east coast towards Shanghai, Xinhua news agency said.

More heavy rain was forecast for the Shanghai area as well as the eastern provinces of Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with authorities warning of possible flash floods, mudslides and landslides caused by the downpours.

In Zhejiang province alone, nearly 300 flights were cancelled, and ferry and rail services were suspended as a precaution.

More than a quarter of a million people were relocated in Shanghai, where the high-speed maglev train that links the city to one of its airports was suspended.

More than 110,000 people were housed in shelters.

READ: Commentary: Typhoon Mangkhut destroys rice, corn and fish – but what has this got to do with Singapore?

China issued a red alert as the storm approached on Friday, before downgrading the level to orange as winds eased on Saturday morning.

The storm had earlier swept past the northern tip of Taiwan on Friday, where nine people were injured, thousands of homes lost power temporarily and more than 500 flights were cancelled.

Last September, Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into mainland China where authorities evacuated more than two million people, after it left a trail of destruction in Hong Kong and Macau and killed at least 59 people in the northern Philippines. </s> Typhoon Lekima has struck China's coast south of Shanghai, knocking down trees and forcing airlines to cancel flights.

The official Xinhua News Agency says more than 1 million people were evacuated in coastal Zhejiang province before the typhoon hit land at 1:45 a.m. on Saturday.

No deaths or injuries have been immediately reported but state television says 2,100 airline flights and some trains were canceled. </s> At least 13 people have been killed and more than a million forced from their homes as Typhoon Lekima hit China.

Sixteen people were also missing after a landslide was triggered by the storm, state media reported.

Lekima made landfall in the early hours of Saturday in Wenling, between Taiwan and China's financial capital Shanghai.

The storm was initially designated a "super typhoon", but weakened slightly before landfall - when it still had winds of 187km/h (116mph).

The fatal landslide happened when a dam broke in Wenzhou, near where the storm made landfall, state media said.

Lekima is now slowly winding its way north through the Zhejiang province, and is expected to hit Shanghai, which has a population of more than 20 million.

Emergency crews have battled to save stranded motorists from floods. Fallen trees and power cuts are widespread.

Authorities have cancelled more than 1,000 flights and cancelled train services as the city prepares for the storm.

It is expected to weaken further by the time it reaches Shanghai, but will still bring a high risk of dangerous flooding.

"Now the disaster zones are mainly in the rural-urban integration zones," said Fu Songliang, head of a rescue team for Ningbo City's fire service.

"These are low-lying areas. When the flooding from mountainous areas converges and comes down, these areas are quite seriously affected," he told Reuters.

Shanghai evacuated some 250,000 residents, with another 800,000 in the Zhejiang province also being taken from their homes.

An estimated 2.7 million homes in the region lost power as power lines toppled in the high winds, Chinese state media said.

It is the ninth typhoon of the year, Xinhua news said - but the strongest storm seen in years. It was initially given China's highest level of weather warning but was later downgraded to an "orange" level.

Chinese weather forecasters said the storm was moving north at just 15km/h (9mph).

It earlier passed Taiwan, skirting its northern tip and causing a handful of injuries and some property damage.

Coming just a day after a magnitude six earthquake, experts warned that the combination of earth movement and heavy rain increased the risk of landslides.

Lekima is one of two typhoons in the western Pacific at the moment.

Further east, Typhoon Krosa is spreading heavy rain across the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. It is moving north-west and could strike Japan some time next week, forecasters said. </s> At least 13 people have been killed and one million others evacuated from their homes as Typhoon Lekima hit China.

Another 16 people have also been reported missing after a landslide caused by the storm, the country's state broadcaster reported on Saturday.

The casualties were recorded in the Zhejiang province, where the storm made landfall in the morning, according to the CGTN channel, which cited local authorities.

A dam broke near the city of Wenzhou triggering the fatal landslide, state media reported.

A 64-year-old man was killed in Taiwan after falling from a tree while trying to prune its branches as a precaution against the typhoon.

State-owned Xinhua agency reported that more than one million people had been evacuated before the arrival of Lekima.

In the Zhejiang province, more than 700,000 people were evacuated, 110,000 of whom were housed in shelters, while another 253,000 were moved to other safe areas in Shanghai.

Lekima, with winds of up to 187 kilometers per hour (116.2 miles per hour), was the most powerful typhoon to hit China since 2014.

The storm has also forced the cancellation of hundreds of ferries and flights, while also cutting off several stretches of railway lines.

The typhoon, the ninth one to hit China this year, made landfall at 01.45 local time on Saturday near Wenling.

It is expected to hit Shanghai, which is home to more than 20 million people.

The storm is also expected to affect the Anhui, Fujian and Jiangsu provinces.

China's meteorological authorities said that Lekima will continue heading north at a speed of about 15 kph and will gradually weaken as it goes.

The weather system was given a red alert on Friday - the most severe in the country's four-color emergency warning system - which was later lowered it to orange, the second level.

Lekima went from being categorized as a super typhoon which was reduced at 05.00 am local time, with winds of up to 144 kilometers per hour.

Shanghai's Disneyland complex was closed Saturday for the first time since it opened in 2016 due to bad weather, local press reported. EFE-EPA </s> Typhoon Lekima: At least 18 dead, 16 missing as storm makes landfall in China

Typhoon Lekima: At least 18 dead, 16 missing as storm makes landfall in China

The typhoon is bringing torrential rain, heavy seas and high winds to China's eastern coast

At least 18 people have been killed and 16 people are missing after Typhoon Lekima made landfall in eastern China - triggering a landslide.

The typhoon hit the coast south of Shanghai at about 1.45am local time, with more than a million residents evacuated from the area in advance.

More than 180 rescue teams, 36,000 firefighters and 8,400 fire engines were put on standby ahead of its landfall in Zhejiang province.

The typhoon has caused over 200 homes to collapse - damaging another 3,200.

Dramatic footage showed residents in the hardest-hit areas being rescued from fast-flowing waters that had inundated their homes.

Flood prevention efforts were stepped up along Asia's longest waterway in the wake of the top-level warning, which has also led authorities to ready evacuations, suspend train and air travel, and call for vessels to return to port.

China has cancelled 2,100 flights and some train services, including the closure of the high-speed train to Pudong International Airport.

The typhoon also forced Taiwan to cancel flights and close markets, offices and schools.

It also left more than 40,000 homes without power on the island, where authorities have issued landslide warnings following an earlier earthquake.

China's National Meteorological Centre said Lekima, gusting at 130mph, was the strongest typhoon since 2014.

It warned 24-hour rainfall levels across eastern China could reach up to 32cm (13in).

Cruise liners have been asked to delay their arrival in Shanghai, while some ships are set to be diverted to Hong Kong to help prevent accidents and collisions.

In Zhejiang, the ferry service has been cancelled and more than 200 tourists evacuated from Beiji island.

Three main streams of the Yangtze are likely to exceed alert levels.

The commission overseeing the river for the ministry of water resources has directed efforts to prevent floods and over-saturation of levees along its banks. </s> Image copyright China Daily via Reuters Image caption Typhoon Lekima battered eastern China - but casualties were not in the millions

China's largest video-streaming platform has apologised after it mistakenly said a typhoon had killed everyone in Shandong province - home to around 99 million people.

Tencent Video made the error in a push notification about Typhoon Lekima, sent to subscribers on Monday.

It later corrected the death toll for the province to five.

The nationwide death toll from the typhoon had reached 56 by Wednesday, according to official media reports.

In its mistaken push notification on Monday, Tencent cited the Shandong Emergency Response Office as saying: "Typhoon Lekima has left the entire province dead, seven people are missing."

The company later posted a statement expressing regret on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, and blamed the error on "editorial mistakes". It apologised for any harm caused, and promised to review its work practices.

Tencent Video had 89 million subscribers at the start of 2019, according to a financial report released in May.

Typhoon Lekima hit eastern China in the early hours of Saturday, and swept through the provinces of Zhejiang, Shandong and Anhui over the weekend.

Around two million people were forced to leave their homes, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said, and more than 1,000 flights were cancelled.

State media said weekend rainfall levels in Shandong were the highest since records began in 1952.

Screenshots showing the Tencent message were widely shared on Weibo, where many were less than forgiving.

"Where are your editorial standards? It's a major natural disaster situation, how could you get something like this wrong?" said one commenter.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Typhoon Lekima causes devastation in eastern China

"Are you crazy Tencent? Sending out a [notification] like this has serious consequences," another posted.

Others made light of the error, however.

"I live in Shandong," said one commenter. "Tencent is really amazing, I didn't even know I died."

Census data from 2016 showed that Shandong is home to 99.4 million residents. </s> BEIJING (AP) — At least eight people have been reported dead after a powerful typhoon lashed much of southeastern China and Taiwan.



China's Ministry of Civil Affairs on Friday updated the number of deaths to seven as a result of Typhoon Meranti, which struck Fujian province early Thursday. Nine people in China are still missing.



Taiwanese authorities reported that one person died in the storm.



According to Chinese officials, Meranti forced the relocation of 33 million people and destroyed 1,600 homes. Images shared by state news media showed power lines and destroyed vehicles downed on streets in the coastal city of Xiamen. Taiwanese media reported that parts of southern Taiwan remain flooded.



But even as the cleanup is underway there, another typhoon, Malakas, is expected to hit Taiwan late Friday and Saturday.
At least 56 people have been killed and more than a million forced from their homes as Typhoon Lekima hits eastern China.