At least 12 dead in landslide in China as heavy rains from tropical storm Gaemi drench region

Related Press

BEIJING (AP) — At least 12 people were killed Sunday when a landslide hit a private home in a tourist area in southeastern China, while heavy rains from the remnants of a tropical storm drenched the region, state media reported.

Elsewhere in China, a delivery driver riding a scooter in Shanghai died on Saturday after being hit by a falling tree, apparently due to storm-induced winds, digital news portal The Paper reported.

The deaths were the first in China apparently linked to Typhoon Gaemi, which weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall on Thursday. Before reaching China, the typhoon intensified monsoon rains in the Philippines, killing at least 34 people. It also swept across the island of Taiwan, where the death toll rose to 10, authorities said late Saturday.

The landslide hit the private house at around 8 a.m., trapping 21 people in Yuelin village, which is under the jurisdiction of Hengyang city in Hunan province, state broadcaster CCTV reported in a series of online reports. About 30 centimeters of rain was recorded in the region within 24 hours.

Six injured people were rescued. Reports did not say whether the injuries were serious. The homeowner initially reported that 18 people were trapped, but a search and rescue team later determined that three more people were missing, CCTV reported.

The one-story house offered food and accommodation near Hengshan, a mountain in a scenic area where tourists come on weekends to escape the summer heat, the newspaper said in a report. The scenic areas had already been closed since Sunday due to heavy rains until further notice before the landslide.

CCTV reports said the landslide was triggered by water rushing down mountains from the rains. Gaemi was not mentioned in them, but the China Meteorological Administration said heavy rains linked to the tropical storm hit southeastern parts of Hunan province on Saturday.

In Shanghai, a photo posted by The Paper showed a delivery scooter lying on its side, mostly covered by leafy branches, next to the bare trunk of a tree that was still standing. It said the storm’s winds were the suspected cause and that an investigation was ongoing.

The wide arc of the tropical storm also brought heavy rains to northeastern China within a radius of about 2,000 kilometers.

The Linjiang municipal government in Jilin province posted a notice on social media urging residents living below the third floor to move to higher buildings on Sunday as the Yalu River, which forms the border with North Korea, had exceeded the warning level.

In neighboring Liaoning province, hundreds of chemical and mining companies suspended operations as a precaution since Saturday and more than 30,000 people were evacuated, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Nearly 40 trains were suspended until Thursday for safety reasons after persistent rain in recent days caused hazards and damaged tracks.

Two more people have died in Taiwan, bringing the death toll to ten, the island’s news agency reported, citing the operations center. Two more people are missing and 895 people are injured.

The most recent victims were a man found in a sewage ditch and another man who died in a car accident.

In Taiwan, more than 800 people were in emergency shelters by Saturday night and over 5,000 households were still without electricity.

The typhoon caused crop damage worth nearly 1.7 billion New Taiwan dollars (51.8 million U.S. dollars), the Central News Agency reported, citing figures from the Ministry of Agriculture. Bananas, guavas and pears were among those damaged, as were chicken and other livestock farms, as well as oyster and other fishing farms.

During the typhoon, a cargo ship sank off the coast of Taiwan, killing its captain, and eight other ships ran aground.