Thousands return home in China as storm weakens

BEIJING - Southeast China cleaned up after a major storm packing heavy rains and high winds blew itself out -- but only after killing at least five people and leaving behind destroyed crops and houses.

Many of the more than one million people forced to abandon their homes in the southeast provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang headed back to pick up the pieces, state media said.

Floods sparked by the storm in four cities in China's Fujian province were already receding.

"Flood alarms have stopped ringing today," the report said.

But officials warned there could still be danger.

"The floods brought by the heavy rain make disease prevention in the aftermath extremely important," the China Daily quoted Zhejiang public health official Yan Dehua as saying.

In hard-hit Zhejiang, the storm caused floods and landslides that left five people dead and six missing and was responsible for 8.1 billion yuan (US$1464.65 million) in direct losses, state television said.

In Taiwan, where the official death toll stands at 12 with three missing and 31 injured, the typhoon caused nearly US$100 million in damage to the agricultural sector, the Council of Agriculture said.

More than 350,000 households there still do not have access to clean water as a result of the typhoon.

The Taiwan government is also maintaining alerts for torrential rain in central and southern areas as well as for possible landslides and flash floods.

Typhoons gather strength from warm sea waters and tend to dissipate after making landfall. They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a season that starts in early summer and lasts until late autumn.

- REUTERS