Typhoon Meranti has left at least 11 people dead in China and an ancient bridge destroyed as it wreaked havoc on the country’s eastern coast, the government said yesterday.
The storm, described by Xinhua news agency as the world’s strongest typhoon this year and the worst to hit China’s Fujian Province since records began in 1949, had killed seven people in Fujian and three in neighbouring Zhejiang Province by yesterday morning, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement.
Eleven people were missing and more than 330,000 residents had been relocated, it added.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwanese authorities reported that one person died in the storm.
The typhoon, which had earlier skirted the southern tip of Taiwan, made landfall in Xiamen early on Thursday packing winds of around 170kph and bringing downpours across the province, the statement said.
Flooding destroyed an 871-year-old bridge that was a protected heritage site in Yongchun County, Xinhua reported.
At one point more than 3.2 million homes had their electricity cut off and water supplies for many communities in Xiamen were disrupted, it added.
The storm had weakened to a tropical depression yesterday.
According to Chinese officials, Meranti 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.
However, even as the cleanup is under way there, another typhoon, Malakas, was expected to hit Taiwan late yesterday and today.
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