Krosa Storms Into China's Southeast

BEIJING - A powerful storm drenched China's southeast coast Sunday after killing five people on Taiwan and prompting the mainland to evacuate more than 1 million people, the government announced.

Krosa, which earlier was a typhoon, hit land at 3:30 p.m. in densely populated Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, the Zhejiang weather bureau reported on its Web site. There was no immediate word of injuries or damage.

At 6 p.m., Krosa - the Cambodian word for crane - was a tropical storm. It had sustained winds of 66 mph, with gusts up to 89 mph at that time, according to the Zhejiang weather bureau's deputy director, who would give only his surname, Wang.

More than 1 million people were evacuated from low-lying coastal areas, including more than 500,000 tourists who were at beach resorts for the National Day holiday week, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Krosa killed five people in Taiwan on Saturday as it knocked out power to 2 million homes and drenched the island, according to Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center.

Two men were killed in suburban Taipei when a landslide buried their house, the center said. A man died after falling from his balcony in Hsinchu and a woman was electrocuted after falling from her motorcycle in Tainan. The center said a man's body was recovered from a hostel that was hit by a landslide in Ilan and another man was missing.

Early Sunday, China's coast guard rescued 27 sailors from a Hong Kong freighter that suffered mechanical failure after it was hit by Krosa off the port of Wenzhou in Zhejiang, Xinhua said.

Schools were closed and airline flights canceled in Wenzhou, which lay in the storm's path, Xinhua said. The city ordered fishing boats, ferries and sightseeing boats to return to port.

Authorities warned of possible mudslides in Fujian, which was hit by torrential rains ahead of Krosa's arrival, Xinhua said.

In Shanghai, where the Special Olympics is taking place, the city government canceled vacations for flood-control workers and was drafting plans to drain competition sites, the agency said.

In Vietnam, the death toll from Typhoon Lekima - which hit the country's central coast late Wednesday - rose to 46, with another 29 people missing, officials said Sunday.

Lekima, named after a local fruit, also damaged about 77,000 homes, the government said.

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On the 'Net:

China Meteorological Administration (in Chinese): http://www.cma.gov.cn

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