Typhoon Gaemi’s Hunan toll rises to 30 dead, with 35 missing

Thirty people have been killed and another 35 have gone missing since Typhoon Gaemi made landfall and hit Hunan province, state media reported on Thursday.

The casualties occurred in Zixing city, where 118,000 residents were affected by heavy flooding, mudflows and landslides triggered by the typhoon.

Typhoon Gaemi, which wreaked havoc when it travelled across the Philippines and Taiwan last week, first hit China’s Fujian and Jiangxi provinces last weekend before it moved inland to strike Hunan province, where more than 1.2 million people have been affected.

By Thursday noon, flood-damaged roads and communication facilities in Zixing had been repaired or restored, with search and rescue continuing for the missing, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

“Forces are still working in an intense and orderly manner on the front line, and will make every effort to search for and rescue the missing people and do their best in disaster relief work, following the requirement of not letting go of any glimmer of hope,” the Xinhua report said.

Unprecedented torrential rain brought by Typhoon Gaemi in the past few days has flooded more than 1.5 million mu (100,000 hectares) of farmland in the province.