© AFP/Getty Images The Hotel Chin shuai is collapsed in floodwaters during typhoon Morakot in Chihpen, Taitung county, Taiwan, Aug. 9, 2009.
The typhoon, the ninth of the Pacific cyclone season, damaged the properties of at least 136,000 people in Xiapu county in Fujian province, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported today. It caused damage of 2.2 billion yuan ($322 million) and prompted the evacuation of almost 1 million people in eastern China, Xinhua said late yesterday.
In Taiwan, 14 people were killed when Morakot crossed the north of the island. The typhoon dumped more rain on Taiwan than in any 48-hour period since records began 100 years ago, Taiwan's chief weather forecaster Lee Hsiang-yuan said.
The center of Morakot weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall in China, according to the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Heavy rains in Japan left 13 people dead and 10 missing in the southwest and disrupted rail services in the capital, Tokyo. A tropical storm is also approaching from the south and is forecast to bring more rain to the country tomorrow.
Morakot crossed the Chinese coast at about 4:20 p.m. local time near Fuzhou with winds of 119 kilometers (74 miles) per hour. It caused the collapse of 1,800 houses in the province of Zhejiang, Xinhua said. More than 3.4 million people were affected in the province.
A child died yesterday after a house collapsed in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, Xinhua reported earlier.
Moving Inland
© Patrick Lin/AFP/Getty Images Rescuers help evacuate local residents during typhoon Morakot, in Chiatung, Pingtung county, Taiwan, Aug. 9, 2009.
In Taiwan, Morakot damaged more than NT$4.2 billion ($128 million) in agricultural production after the worst rains on record, the government said.
Fifty-one people were missing and 32 injured as of 12 p.m. local time today, according to Taiwan's National Fire Administration. Taiwan's banana crop was the most severely affected with 4,431 hectares destroyed as of 9 a.m. today, the Council of Agriculture said.
More than 2,800 millimeters of rain fell on Alishan in southern Chiayi County between Aug. 6 and 12 p.m. today, the fire administration said. A single-day record of 1,415 millimeters fell during the typhoon, it said. The storm destroyed 33,134 hectares of land, according to the Council of Agriculture.
The six-story King Shai Hotel in Taidong in southeastern Taiwan collapsed into a river after flooding undermined its foundations.
Electricity was restored yesterday in some areas after disruptions affected 1.58 million households, according to the statement.
Morakot means emerald in the Thai language, according to the Web site of the Hong Kong Observatory that names the storms.
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