Typhoon Report

China floods: a close-up look at the destruction in Hunan Province

At least 1,800 people have been killed in severe flooding in China this year, following a series of devastating typhoons and tropical storms. Most recently, Typhoon Saomai – the worst to hit China’s mainland in half a century – claimed more than 200 lives and destroyed or damaged over 432,000 homes and around 270,000 hectares of farmland in south-east China.
In early August, Typhoon Papiroon killed around 80 people, while Tropical Storm Bilis left more than 600 dead in mid-July....

This year’s storms have been unusually frequent and powerful, bringing renewed misery to rural families who are already struggling to scrape by.

Meanwhile, as some areas of China are hit by more typhoons and the resulting floods, other areas are suffering from intense drought, which experts say is another by-product of global warming.


17th century Chinese castle collapses in impact of typhoons


A 370-year-old castle in East China dating back to Ming Dynasty has collapsed after being hit by floods triggered by three typhoons over the past three months.

Nine houses in the Caipu Castle, in Yunxiao County of Fujian province, collapsed after being soaked in flood for weeks while more than 200 square metres of the outer wall crumbled, a county cultural official said.

"Fortunately nobody was injured or killed," curator of the county museum, Tang Yuxian said.

The moat has often flooded the castle since mid-May when Typhoon Chanchu slashed Southern and Eastern China, followed by Bilis and Kaemi that set off flood and landslides to kill hundreds of people.

There are more than 200 families living in the castle.

The Caipu Castle was built in 1636 and was the only round castle made of a mixture of lime, clay and sand that still exists in Fujian, Xinhua news agency quoted Tang as saying.



DPR Korea: Floods Information Bulletin No. 3

July and August are regarded as the height of the floods season in East Asia. Over the past eight weeks, large-scale flooding and a series of typhoons have affected China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Japan and the Republic of Korea. In DPRK, 14-15 July floods triggered by a typhoon affected a total of eight counties in South Pyongan, North Hwanghae, Kangwon and South Hamgyong provinces.

According to the latest official figures, floods during the second week of July killed 151 people. Having now located many who were missing, the number of missing has been reduced from 127, as reported on 25 July, to 29 people. Rains precipitated landslides and flash floods that totally or partially destroyed 23,400 houses and rendered more than 16,960 families homeless, causing extensive damage to crops and infrastructure.

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For the Austrailia season of Tropical Cyclones - they also had a particularly bad year with 2 category 5s, and 3 category 4s (by their scale). "Monica was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to affect the Northern Territory (Australian Bureau of Meteorology)".