By 10:00 PM yesterday the death toll from Typhoon Saomai had risen to 295 in China and is likely to mount as another 94 people remain missing in Fuding, the worst hit city in China's southeast coastal province of Fujian.

 

The city government said 178 people were confirmed dead by Monday night and 155 bodies had been recovered. "On Monday alone 59 bodies were discovered in the sea off Shacheng Harbor," said Cai Meisen, vice mayor of Fuding.

 

Officials with Fujian provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said most people were killed when the super strong typhoon broke the moorings of their vessels that had sought shelter in harbor.

 

The others were killed in typhoon-triggered disasters on land such as floods, landslides and mud-flows. Local authorities and residents are still searching for the missing. The Fuding death toll update brings total fatalities in Fujian to 206.

 

Previous reports listed 87 dead and 52 missing in east China's Zhejiang Province where Saomai struck and two dead and one missing in nearby Jiangxi Province.

 

Also in Zhejiang at least 2.1 million people have been affected, 18,000 houses destroyed, 56 provincial roads and national highways swamped, causing estimated losses of 4.89 billion yuan (US$611 million).

 

In Fuding the storm damaged a 1,146-year-old Buddhist temple causing its gate house to collapse along with 20 other buildings. The damage to the Ziguo Temple totaled 5 million yuan (US$625,000).

 

Saomai, the eighth typhoon in China this year, slammed into Cangnan County of Wenzhou City at 5:25 PM last Thursday. It was downgraded to a tropical depression by 11 AM the following day. Saomai, the most powerful typhoon for the past 50 years, killed at least two people in the Philippines earlier and brought heavy rain to Japan.?

 

 

According to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), another two tropical storms, Sonamu and Wukong, were respectively located at latitude 18.1 north, longitude 129.9 east and latitude 26.4 north, longitude 138.0 east Monday. CMA experts said they are not likely to affect China in the next couple of days.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2006)