BEIJING, Aug. 24 -- The death toll from a killer typhoon rose to more than 700, after eastern China's Zhejiang Province was pounded with towering surf, the China daily said Wednesday. Provincial authorities described as unprecedented the damage from Typhoon Fred, that packed gale-force winds, 23-foot waves and torrential rains Sunday and Monday. More than 700 people were killed and hundreds were still missing. At least 1,854 were injured in the city of Wenzhou, the China Daily said. President Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng dispatched a delegation of high-ranking Chinese leaders to inspect the disaster-stricken area. The typhoon clobbered 10 cities and 48 counties, damaging or destroying 800,000 homes and affecting 11 million people, according to the China News Service. Soldiers pitched in with rescue efforts, and special work teams attempted to restore electricity, telephone service and railway transportation. The havoc damaged 633 miles of roads, 2,808 miles of power transmission lines and 567 miles of dykes, the Xinhua news service said. The driving winds also lashed the cities of Shanghai and Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, knocking down trees and electric poles and flattening cotton fields. The storm struck Sunday night, churning up huge waves across three rivers near Wenzhou and the East China Sea. Embankments along the coast broke at 770 places, severing the city's power and water supply and disrupting land, water and air transportation. Wenzhou Airport was forced to close as torrents reached 4.2 feet. Industrial and mining enterprises stopped production.
Some 348,750 acres of farmland was ruined and 367,000 farm animals were killed. As the typhoon approach, the Zhejiang Provincial Military Area Command issued an urgent order asking People's Liberation Army officers and men to be on full alert. Contingents started evacuating the stranded that same night. The province was already battered by heavy flooding earlier this year. Floods so far have claimed 4,000 lives in southern China and caused $6.1 billion in damage.
