Typhoon Xangsane whirled away from Taiwan and closer to southern Japan yesterday, leaving 53 dead and 10 missing in the island's worst flooding in three decades, officials said.
Xangsane was weakening to a tropical storm with winds below 118kph and located in the East China Sea as it moved toward Okinawa, Japan, the Central Weather Bureau said.
PHOTO: TSENG TEH-FENG
Taiwan experienced the worst flooding in 30 years as Xangsane swept across the northern part of the island, the government disaster relief center said in a report.
In the city of Keelung, 15 people were drowned as they prayed while trapped in the basement of a Buddhist temple. Fourteen people drowned in a home for senior citizens while waiting for rescue workers, local media reported.
The National Fire Administration, which handles search and rescue operations, said 23 sailors on a Panamanian-registered freighter were feared dead after their ship sank off northern Taiwan in the stormy weather.
There were 12 Filipinos and 12 Indonesians onboard but only one Indonesian seaman swam ashore. Two helicopter searches yesterday failed to turn up any more survivors and a rescue ship had been sent to the area, the administration said in a statement.
In Taipei City, flooding was reported in 57 locations despite the fact that all of the city's pumping stations were operating at full capacity during and after the storm, officials said.
Preliminary estimates made by the Council of Agriculture put the total damage caused by the typhoon at about NT$2 billion (US$61.73 million). Most of the damage was to fish ponds, farmland, and fruit orchards due to flooding or landslides.
Of the 19 counties and cities affected by the typhoon, Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties are entitled to apply for government cash aid to help farmers restore production. The counties of Taichung, Changhwa, Tainan, Taitung, and Hualien are entitled to apply for low-interest loans for similar relief.
State utility firms yesterday were still trying to restore electricity to 149,112 households across the island and water for 123,330 others.
Meanwhile, divers and rescue workers were working yesterday to pick up residents stranded near their half-submerged houses and cars. Residents also were searching through mud in their neighborhoods for their belongings that were swept away.
Packing winds of up to 145kph, the center of the typhoon hit Taiwan early Wednesday and stuck close to the eastern coast as it moved north. By late Wednesday, Xangsane -- a word that means ``elephant'' in Lao -- moved away from the island.
In Keelung, river dikes collapsed and wooden fishing boats remained moored in the harbor. Roads were blocked by mud and silt in the city's worst flooding in nearly eight years, local officials said.
International flights were canceled from Kaohsiung to the Philippines -- where the typhoon struck before reaching Taiwan, killing 26 people, leaving 50 missing and damaging property and crops worth US$17 million.
Taiwan may not be out of the woods just yet, however.
Typhoon Bebinca battered several eastern Philippine provinces with winds of up 160km yesterday, officials said.
By late afternoon yesterday, Bebinca was in the vicinity of Camarines Norte Province, about 220km east of Manila, with sustained winds increasing from 120kph around noon to 130kph.
It also gained speed, traveling 22kph westward, and was expected to pass about 260km northwest of metropolitan Manila yesterday afternoon, the weather bureau said.
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