Typhoon Gaemi wreaks havoc across parts of Western Pacific region

By Linda Bordoni

Typhoon Gaemi, the most powerful storm to hit the country this year, pummelled towns in China's coastal Fujian province on Friday with heavy rains and strong winds and began to make its way into the populous interior.

The storm has affected almost 630,000 people in the province so far, with almost half of them having to be relocated.

Earlier this week, it killed dozens of people as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines, where floods reached as high as one-storey buildings and caused several landslides. 32 people are reported to have died and Manila has declared a state of calamity.

As the typhoon continued north-west towards Taiwan on Tuesday, it caused an oil tanker to capsize in Manila Bay, resulting in what could be the worst oil spill in Philippine history.

Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday bringing widespread flooding, seven reported deaths and injuring more than 700 people.

On Thursday night it landed in the Fujian city of Putian, and while it has been downgraded to a tropical storm because of slower wind speeds, its vast cloud bands remain a significant flood risk, particularly to rivers in central China, already elevated due to summer rains.

The Chinese president has foreseen efforts to control the floods and prevent breaches of major rivers and the collapse of large and key medium-sized reservoirs.

By late Friday, Gaemi is expected to reach Jiangxi province, home to China's largest freshwater lake, and forecasters warn as many as 10 provinces could be affected, including Henan, a province with a population of over 100 million in central China.

According to a report published on Friday, scientists are warning that global warming is worsening tropical storms, making them less frequent but much more intense.