Typhoon Lekima death toll reaches 33 in China
Posted August 11, 2019 9:10 am.
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BEIJING — The death toll has topped 30 from a powerful typhoon that hit China’s east coast south of Shanghai.
China’s emergency broadcasting network said Sunday that 33 people had died and 16 were still missing after Typhoon Lekima made landfall early the previous day.
Rescue workers used rubber dinghies to evacuate people stranded in their homes as swift currents swept by.
Most of the victims were in a village in Zhejiang province. A landslide triggered by the storm backed up a river, inundating homes and killing at least 23 people.
The other victims were elsewhere in Zhejiang, along with one death reported in neighbouring Anhui province.
Lekima has been downgraded to a tropical storm but is still expected to dump heavy rain on China as it moves up the Pacific coast.
The Associated Press
