Despite successful swift water rescues and hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated, the number dead or missing from Soudelor has climbed to 22 with more than four million homes without power, according to the Associated Press (AP).
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After hitting Taiwan earlier Saturday, Soudelor made landfall in China later at night in Fujian province and from there it moved to Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, Xinhua news agency reported.
Xihnua says 12 people were killed and five are missing in mudslides in rural areas of Wenzhou municipality, in the south of Zhejiang province.
About 1.36 million people in the city were affected by the typhoon, with a direct economic loss of 3.83 billion yuan (USD 617 million U.S. Dollars).
Power supply for more than three million households was affected and was restored for 1.14 million households as of Sunday morning after urgent repairs, according to State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd.
Soudelor rapidly intensified on Monday after departing Saipan, and became a super typhoon (Category 5 hurricane).
Transport nationwide began to return to normal on Sunday, as Typhoon Soudelor left Taiwan, with only minor delays expected to scheduled flights.
In the provincial capital of Fuzhou, much of the downtown area was waterlogged.
China’s National Meteorological Center forecast the typhoon would be downgraded to a tropical depression by Sunday night as it moved further inland.
Residents gather to see huge waves stirred up by strong wind as typhoon Soudelor draws near the mainland of China in Wenling, in east China’s Zhejiang province.
Soudelor, packing maximum sustained winds of 173 kilometres per hour, earlier left six people dead and four missing in Taiwan, authorities said Sunday.
Rescuers carry an elderly lady (C) out of her flooded home in Ningde, in eastern China’s Fujian province on August 9, 2015.
An 8-year-old girl and her mother died when they were swept out to sea Thursday from a beach on the east coast, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported.
It’s now China’s turn to take a pummeling, with Soudelor making landfall Saturday night in Putian city, in the nation’s southern Fujian province.
A street corner is filled with a mangled rooftop brought down by strong winds from Typhoon Soudelor in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, August 8, 2015.
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Some 379 people were injured by the storm in Taiwan, which saw rivers break their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pound the coastline.
