Typhoon Soudelor Impacts: At Least 28 Killed; Grade-IV Emergency Issued for Hard-Hit Areas in China

Sean Breslin
Published: August 10,2015

Typhoon Soudelor battered Taiwan and China over the weekend, leaving at least 28 dead and several more missing.
The Chinese government says 21 people have been killed by typhoon-related impacts, with the deaths coming in the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi. At least five others are missing, likely trapped under mudslides or swept away by flooding, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.
Officials issued a grade-IV emergency, the lowest emergency level, for areas hard-hit by Soudelor in China, Xinhua News Agency reported. Two teams were dispatched to Zhejiang and Fujian provinces to aid those affected by the storm.
(MORE: Track Typhoon Soudelor)
The storm also halted travel; more than 500 flights were canceled, and nearly 200 high-speed trains did not run as the storm bore down on China.
Agricultural damage in Taiwan is estimated to cost around $18.9 million, says the Taipei Times. Damage in China has been calculated at $617 million, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Taiwan's Ministry of Education reported academic institutional damage reached $4 million nationwide, Taiwan News reported. At least 812 schools were damaged.

Typhoon Soudelor, as seen from the International Space Station on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015.
(NASA/Kimiya Yui)

At one point during the storm, over 4 million Taipower customers were rendered powerless, a record number of outages previously held by Typhoon Herb, which left 2.79 million powerless in 1996, according to the utility.
The BBC reported an eastern Taitung County resident told Formosa TV, "I've never seen such a powerful typhoon in my 60 years."
Eight deaths and 420 injuries have been confirmed in Taiwan by the country's Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center. A man was killed in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, after he was struck by a falling tree Saturday afternoon, Taiwan News reported. Another man died when he was struck by a falling billboard in Su'ao township late Friday night, the report added.
A mudslide in Sanxia, New Taipei City, killed an elderly man, resulting in the storm's fifth fatality in Taiwan, said Taiwan News.
(PHOTOS: Typhoon Soudelor Kills at Least 6; Damage Reported in Taiwan)
An 8-year-old girl and her mother died when they were swept out to sea by strong waves as the storm neared land, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. The girl's twin sister remains missing along the beach in the northeastern county of Yilan, the report added.
Before the storm made landfall in China, more than 1.4 million homes in Fujian province were left without power as strong winds blasted the region, the Associated Press reported.
The city of Fuzhou, China, was slammed by heavy rains, leaving over 10,000 trees strewn about the city and stranding vehicles in floodwaters, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of more than 163,000 people in southeast China and called 32,000 ships back to port ahead of the storm, the AP added. Thousands of police and soldiers were on standby to aid those affected by Soudelor.
(MORE: Soudelor Causes Major Damage in Saipan)
On Saturday afternoon, marine police rescued 55 university students and teachers trapped on a small island where they had been attending a summer camp, after strong gales stopped ferry services, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Soudelor caused additional devastation along its journey, particularly on the island of Saipan. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands remains without power and water in the wake of the tropical system, and U.S. President Barack Obama declared the nation a disaster area, according to the Associated Press. The disaster declaration allows federal funding to be sent to the U.S. territory as it rebuilds from the massive storm.