Typhoon Gaemi lashes China after pounding Taiwan, Philippines

The Star

Typhoon Gaemi pummelled towns on China's coastal Fujian province on Friday (July 26) with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek into the populous interior.   Read more at https://shorturl.at/yO9qS  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Typhoon Gaimi battered Fujian province with heavy rains and strong winds on Friday as

00:07it moved into China's densely populated interior.

00:10The storm has affected nearly 630,000 people in the province, with about half needing relocation.

00:18Earlier this week, it killed dozens in Taiwan and intensified seasonal rains in the Philippines.

00:24Gaimi was packing winds of more than 100 km per hour near its centre, down from nearly

00:30120 km per hour recorded when it struck Putian, Fujian on Thursday night.

00:36Although downgraded to a tropical storm due to reduced wind speeds, its extensive cloud

00:41bands still pose a significant flood risk, especially to rivers in central China already

00:47swollen from summer rains.

00:50Hours before the typhoon's arrival, President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party's Standing

00:54Committee held a special meeting on flood control, urging officials nationwide to protect

01:00lives.

01:01The meeting emphasised preventing breaches of major rivers and the collapse of large

01:05and key medium-sized reservoirs.

01:09On Thursday, Gaimi flooded cities in Taiwan, injuring over 700 people, killing seven and

01:15sinking a freighter off the coast.

01:21Rescuers evacuated nearly 1,000 people using inflatable boats.

01:26In the Philippines, the storm killed 32, prompted Manila to declare a state of calamity due

01:32to widespread flooding and sank a marine tanker carrying industrial fuel.

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