Hundreds of thousands of people in southeast China have been evacuated after a powerful typhoon barreled into the region, packing strong winds and heavy rain.
Typhoon Soulik made landfall in China's Fujian province Saturday afternoon after sweeping across Taiwan.
The typhoon comes as China is already battling torrential rainfall across large parts of the country, especially in Sichuan province. Some 200 people have been killed in floods, the worst in some areas of Sichuan in 50 years.
Soulik forced the evacuation of some 300,000 people in Fujian and the cancellation of flights and train service in the province, as well as in neighboring Zhejiang.
Xinhua news agency said almost 31,000 ships were called back to port and 20 flights cancelled. The news agency said Soulik dropped 10 inches of rain on Fujian's port city of Xiamen over the weekend.
Earlier, Soulik cut off power to 520,000 homes in Taiwan, uprooting trees and blocking traffic.
Soulik was blamed for two deaths in Taiwan from one in China.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
