Typhoon Nesat causes heavy damage in S China

Updated: 2011-10-01 18:14

(Xinhua)

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NANNING - More than 1 million people in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have been affected by typhoon Nesat, which made landfall Friday, the regional government said Saturday.

The typhoon battered 23 counties in eight cities, including the regional capital Nanning, forcing the evacuation of 63,200 people, the regional civil affairs department said in a press release.

At least 1.18 million people are suffering losses ranging from destroyed homes to ruined crops, it said.

The typhoon, packing strong winds and heavy rain, toppled 387 homes and damaged 2,721 others.

Nearly 120,000 hectares of cropland were damaged, of which 3,620 hectares were rendered useless.

Rong Jiaqing, a villager in Pubei county in the suburbs of Qinzhou, said nearly all his sugarcane on about 8 hectares of farmland had been broken by the high winds.

Winds and rainstorms also damaged about 10 percent of the banana trees on a 1,000-hectare plantation in the county, said Lai Guangwei, a local official in the town of Dacheng.

The regional weather bureau said most parts of Guangxi experienced heavy rains from 8 am Friday to 6 am Saturday. The maximum precipitation reported in the cities of Beihai, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and Nanning totaled 400 millimeters.

Rain-triggered flooding hit 10 villages in the outskirts of Binyang county in Nanning, where water measured 1 to 3 meters, the regional flood control and drought relief headquarters said Saturday.

It also said nearly 10,000 villagers were evacuated.

The typhoon caused mountain torrents that trapped four university students on a wild mountain in the city of Fangchenggang Friday afternoon, prompting an overnight search and rescue operation conducted by the local fire brigade.

The students, including three men and a woman, were rescued at 2 am Saturday.

The regional weather bureau has warned that a second typhoon, Nalgae, is expected to strike Guangxi around Wednesday.