Fourteen dead in floods in northeastern China

[August 07, 2023]  BEIJING (Reuters) -Fourteen people were reported to have died over the weekend in the Chinese city of Shulan due to flooding caused by Typhoon Doksuri.

Northeastern China, Beijing and Hebei province have seen heavy rainfall and floods since the typhoon made landfall in southern Fujian province two weeks ago.

A man holding a child walks across a damaged bridge after the rains and floods brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China August 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

The deaths in Shulan, in northeastern Jilin province, add to the more than 20 who died last week in Beijing and Hebei. Authorities have yet to provide an overall death toll for the entire country.

Three officials were among the dead in Shulan, including a vice mayor of the city of about 587,000 people, state media reported late on Sunday.

Water levels in the city have receded to safe levels and emergency response efforts have been mobilized to relocate residents and repair infrastructure. Power had been restored to 14,305 homes, state media reported.

Regional authorities said sections of the Songhua, the main river in northeastern China, and the Nenjiang tributary remained at dangerously high levels.

Over the past five days, rainfall in the south of Heilongjiang's capital Harbin and nearby city Mudanjiang, in northern Jilin province and in Yanbian in its east have recorded cumulative precipitation of almost or more than 100 mm (3.93 inches), the national forecaster said.

Power was also restored to many flood-hit areas of Beijing and in Hebei province. Efforts to resume power supply in the northeastern provinces Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning were ongoing, state broadcaster CCTV said.

As authorities scramble to restore normal living conditions after the passing storms from Doksuri, the national forecaster warned the northeastern region to brace itself for more storms from Typhoon Khanun.

The typhoon, which has wreaked havoc in southern Japan and is expected to reach southern South Korea on Thursday, is forecast to bring winds and rainstorms to China's northeast by the weekend as it travels over the Korean peninsula.

As it moves northward from Japan, Khanun could build up its speed and intensity before hitting South Korea's coast, China's weather forecaster said.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, Ryan Woo, Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Editing by Stephen Coates and Toby Chopra)

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