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SHAKE AND BLOW
Super Typhoon Rammasun hits southern China
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) July 18, 2014


Philippine typhoon death toll nears 100, new storm brings rains
Manila (AFP) July 20, 2014 - The death toll from Typhoon Rammasun in the Philippines rose to 94 -- with six missing -- as another storm brought rains to the ravaged areas, authorities said Sunday.

The reports of fatalities came in as repairmen struggled to restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of households who have been without power since the storm hit last week.

"The majority of the fatalities are from falling debris and trees while many of the missing are from boats that went out to sea," despite the storm, said Mina Marasigan, spokeswoman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The typhoon has since blown to southern China but a new storm, named Matmo, was packing gusts of 150 kilometres (93 miles) and worsening rainfall in places affected by Rammasun, she told AFP.

Manila Electric Co, the country's largest power distributor, said more than 400,000 homes in the Manila area were still experiencing outages since the first typhoon of the year hit on Wednesday.

The Philippines is struck by about 20 major storms annually, many of them deadly. The Southeast Asian archipelago is often the first major landmass to be struck after storm build above the warm Pacific Ocean waters.

In November Super Typhoon Haiyan unleashed giant seven-metre (23-foot) high storm surges that devastated the coasts of the eastern islands of Samar and Leyte, killing up to 7,300 people in one of the nation's worst ever natural disasters.

There were no immediate reports of damage from Typhoon Matmo which is expected to pass over the northern end of the main Philippine island of Luzon about Tuesday, the government weather station said.

The strongest typhoon to hit southern China in more than 40 years made its second landfall Friday, authorities said, after leaving a trail of destruction and at least 64 dead in the neighbouring Philippines.

Super Typhoon Rammasun hit the city of Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong province Friday night, local meteorological authorities said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

It first made landfall Friday afternoon on Hainan island, packing winds of up to 216 kilometres (134 miles) an hour, China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

The typhoon was expected to bring torrential rains and was the strongest storm to strike the country's southern regions since 1973, the NMC said.

It claimed its first victim in China soon after coming ashore in Wenchang, Xinhua reported, when a man was killed by debris as his house collapsed.

State-run China Central Television in news bulletins showed images of wind-whipped trees in Hainan and high waves churned up by the typhoon.

"Strong Typhoon Rammasun is too frightening," wrote one poster on Chinese social media, adding it "came ashore with fierce winds".

"It's raining so hard, the wipers won't help and it's hard to see the road ahead," wrote another user riding in a taxi. "The road is full of water and tree branches, and the heavy wind has blown some branches onto the power cables."

- Red alert for 'Thunder God' -

A public security official in Wengtian, the city on Hainan where the storm first made landfall, told Xinhua that authorities anticipate a rise in fatalities as dozens of residents had already reported injuries before the power was cut off.

"Some rescuers are on their way to places in need of help, but I have lost contact with them too," said the official, Xu Quanzhun.

The outer bands of the storm lashed Hong Kong overnight with heavy rain and strong winds, but the city was spared a direct hit as the typhoon tracked west towards Hainan.

Late on Thursday, the NMC had issued its highest "red alert" for the storm, the first such declaration this year, according to Xinhua.

More than 210,000 residents in Hainan had been evacuated by Friday afternoon, Xinhua said, citing provincial disaster authorities.

One-hundred eighty-four flights were cancelled, affecting nearly 7,000 passengers, and tourism authorities on the island ordered all resorts to shut down and tour bus operators to cease operations from Friday afternoon.

"Guangdong provincial authorities have launched the highest level of emergency response," Xinhua added.

Earlier, Rammasun -- a Thai word for "Thunder God" -- hit the Philippines, slamming the capital Manila and killing at least 64 people, with 103 others injured and five still missing, according to the country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The typhoon made landfall on the main island of Luzon on Tuesday, where it destroyed or damaged more than 26,000 homes while cutting electricity supplies to nearly all of Manila and surrounding urban areas.

The regional utility, Manila Electric Co., said about 11.5 percent of the capital, a megacity of more than 12 million people, remained without power Friday but promised to restore supplies to the entire city later in the day.

The Philippines is often the first major landmass to be struck after storms build above the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Rammasun was the first typhoon to make landfall since this year's rainy season began in June, and the first major storm since Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the eastern islands of Samar and Leyte last November.

Haiyan killed up to 7,300 people in one of the Philippines' worst natural disasters.

In China, the typhoon comes after dozens of people died in the past week when heavy rain battered swathes of the country, with at least six killed by lightning, thousands of homes destroyed and more than 300,000 evacuated, state media have reported.

The rains have killed 10 people and left another 10 missing in the southwestern province of Guizhou, where 122,400 people were evacuated, Xinhua said, citing local authorities.

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SHAKE AND BLOW
Typhoon power woes in Philippines as death toll hits 38
Manila (AFP) July 17, 2014
Millions of people in the Philippines endured a second sweltering day without power on Thursday after a ferocious typhoon paralysed the capital and tore down flimsy rural homes, claiming at least 38 lives. Authorities expressed frustration as reports from badly damaged areas filtered in and the death toll from Typhoon Rammasun, the first major storm of the Southeast Asian archipelago's rainy ... read more


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