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Super Typhoon Rammasun affects 5.57 mn Chinese
July 21, 2014, 4:49 am

A building collapses on a motorcar after landfall of the typhoon typhoon Rammasun in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, July 19, 2014 [Xinhua]

A building collapses on a motorcar after landfall of the typhoon typhoon Rammasun in Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, July 19, 2014 [Xinhua]

Super typhoon Rammasun has killed 17 people in China as of Sunday and affected more than 5.57 million people.

Rammasun, the strongest typhoon to hit south China in four decades, brought gales and downpours to a number of southern provinces like Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Direct economic losses caused by the super typhoon amounted to 26.55 billion yuan ($4.32 billion) in south China, official figures showed on Sunday.

The typhoon seriously damaged power and water supplies, telecommunications networks, ports and roads, making rescue work more difficult.

Hainan, where Rammasun made its first landfall on Friday afternoon, suffered the worst damage, destroying about 51,000 houses and 40,600 hectares of crop. More than 1.13 million households were cut off electricity. After two days of repair work, power supply in the city proper of the provincial capital Haikou was resumed Sunday night.

The local power grid company said power supply would resume in the entire city within three days.

The provincial government has allocated 100 million yuan (16.1 million yuan) to help the worst-hit areas.

Rammasun is expected to continue moving northwest at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, bringing heavy rainfalls to the west of Hainan and Yunnan Province, according to meteorological authorities.

 

Source: Agencies