BEIJING (Reuters) – Continued heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Gaemi triggered flash floods in northeast China on the border with North Korea and brought railway disruptions and landslides to other parts of the country, state media reported on Sunday.
Two officials, including the deputy mayor of Linjiang city in Jilin province, went missing during flood rescue efforts, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing city authorities. More than 27,000 people in northeast China were evacuated and hundreds of factories suspended operations.
Cyclonic winds from Gaemi, downgraded from a typhoon, had mostly dissipated by Sunday, but many parts of China remained under alert for flooding risks caused by earlier rains. Remnants of Gaemi’s vast cloud-banks could still dump rain on already waterlogged cities, forecasters warned.
The most powerful storm to hit the country this year lashed towns on coastal Fujian province on Friday with heavy rains and strong winds as it began its trek from the southeastern coast into the populous interior.
Jilin province, bordering North Korea, issued upgraded warnings for heavy rains and flash floods on Sunday morning. Linjiang authorities shut schools, factories and businesses on Sunday, warning that “major flood disasters may occur”.
In southern China, a landslide near Hengyang city in Hunan province on Sunday morning trapped 18 people, of whom six were found dead and six injured were rescued, CCTV reported, while efforts continued to find the missing.
Rail services were suspended in southern China’s Guangdong province and Hainan island, while some passenger rail lines resumed in the southern provinces of Fujian and Jiangxi as the storm moved north.
Gaemi, which killed dozens as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines, has affected almost 630,000 people in Fujian, with almost half of them being relocated, state news agency Xinhua reported.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing and Jessie Pang in Hong Kong; Editing by William Mallard)
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