Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Zware tropische storm aan land gekomen in China ( BBC )

Tropical Storm Fengshen makes landfall by Alex Deakin
Tropical Storm Fengshen has hit China’s southeastern coast, bringing torrential rain and high winds.

The storm made landfall early Wednesday morning in Guangdong province – China’s wealthiest province. Although the storm had weakened before hitting land, strong winds downed trees, forced the closure of schools and disrupted air traffic across the region. Torrential rain over Hong Kong produced flash flooding, with authorities reporting three landslide incidents. Roads were cut off and around 17 people injured.

Fengshen has brought unwelcome rain to a region of southeast China that was severely damaged by flooding earlier this month, when 63 people were killed and 1.6 million evacuated.

Fengshen, which means ‘God of Wind’, wreaked havoc across the Philippines when it was in its stronger typhoon stage, and caused heavy loss of life along with devastation in some places.

Fengshen is continuing to weaken all the time and will push further north into inland China, bringing further heavy downpours to many parts for the rest of today and into tomorrow.