Typhoon Haikui forces nearly 300,000 residents to evacuate in Chinese coastal province

FUZHOU, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Haikui, the 11th typhoon of this year, forced 294,100 residents to temporarily evacuate in east China's Fujian Province, authorities said.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, torrential rains brought by the typhoon had disrupted the lives of nearly 1.6 million people in the province, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Almost 10,000 hectares of crops were damaged, and more than 2,500 houses were damaged or destroyed, causing a direct economic loss of 5.05 billion yuan (701.5 million U.S. dollars).

Many coastal areas of the province saw heavy rainstorms after the landfall of the typhoon on Tuesday. From 6 a.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday, the precipitation in 65 townships of 15 counties, cities and districts exceeded 250 mm, with the maximum rainfall reaching 548.9 mm in Gaishan Town, Cangshan District, in the provincial capital Fuzhou.

As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, the cumulative precipitation had broken three-hour, six-hour, 12-hour and 24-hour maximum rainfall records in Fuzhou.

Nearly 60,000 people were mobilized for emergency response as of 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Huang Zhigang, an expert with the provincial meteorological bureau, said more torrential rains are expected in the next two days in some areas of Fujian, which may trigger mountain torrents, river flooding and other secondary disasters.