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Typhoon Matmo brings more stormy weather to China

Typhoon Matmo made landfall in southeastern China on Wednesday where it was downgraded to a tropical storm. Typhoon Matmo brought with it heavy rain and gusts of 67 miles per hour.

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Reuters
Men look at a fallen tree atop a car after heavy rainfall as Typhoon Matmo lands on Taiwan, in Fuzhou, Fujian province, Wednesday. Typhoon Matmo slammed into Taiwan on Wednesday with heavy rains and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools.
  • By Staff Associated Press

| Beijing

Typhoon Matmo came ashore in southeastern China on Wednesday, where it was downgraded to a tropical storm. Meanwhile, the number of fatalities from last week's more powerful Typhoon Rammasun rose further. That storm was the strongest to hit the region in forty years.

After passing across Taiwan overnight Tuesday, typhoon Matmo made landfall in China's heavily populated province of Fujian. The country's weather agency said it had gusts of 108 kilometers (67 miles) per hour and was moving at 20 kph (12 mph).

The province's flood control headquarters said nearly 300,000 people had been evacuated by Wednesday afternoon, due to typhoon Matmo.

Authorities in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, had ordered fishing boats to return to port and stepped up patrols to watch for breaks in coastal and river embankments, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Typhoon Matmo weakened after dumping heavy rain on Taiwan, where it injured five people and knocked out power to 31,505 homes, according to the island's Central News Agency. It also closed schools, businesses, and halted trading on the Taiwan stock exchange and foreign-exchange markets, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Matmo was forecast to turn north and pass over areas west of Shanghai, China's biggest business center, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

Rains of up to 300 millimeters (12 inches) were forecast in Shanghai and areas as far north as Jiangsu province, Xinhua said, citing the country's weather agency.

Farther south on the mainland, communities in Guangdong province and on Hainan Island were clearing away debris left by Rammasun, which hit China on Friday.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs raised China's death toll from Rammasun by 10 to 56 and said another 20 people were missing. That raised the total number of deaths from Rammasun in the Philippines, China and Vietnam to 161.

Rammasun, with winds of up to 216 kph (130 mph), was the strongest typhoon to hit China in four decades. It destroyed 40,000 houses, knocked out power and water supplies and caused 38 billion yuan ($6 billion) in economic losses, the ministry said.

The worst storm to hit Taiwan was in 2009 when typhoon Morakot caused hundreds of fatalities, many of which were buried by mudslides.  

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