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Typhoon Conson hits southern China

16 July 2010 20:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Typhoon Conson has arrived in southern China after hitting the Philippines where 38 people were killed, APA reports quoting BBC.
Chinese state media said Conson made landfall on the southern tip of the island province of Hainan.
The storm is expected to add to the worst floods in China in more than a decade, which have already killed 135 people so far this month.
More than 35 million people across China have been hit by the poor weather and 1.2 million have been relocated.
Conson is expected to cross more of south-western China before arriving in northern Vietnam, where about 200,000 people have fled their homes.
Conson had been downgraded to a tropical storm after it left the Philippines but strengthened into a typhoon again late on Thursday before hitting the city of Sanya on Hainan late on Friday.
Flights, shipping and ferries were suspended as the storm approached the island, which is popular with tourists. About 24,000 fishing boats were recalled to their ports.
Dark and windy
The China Meteorological Administration said the typhoon had windspeeds of 75mph (120km/h).
Parts of Guangdong province and neighbouring Guangxi region were also expected to see torrential rains over the next 24 hours.
Torrential rains across a huge area of southern China have already killed around 400 people this year.
Central China is facing its worst floods since 1998 as rain continues to batter the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
"Although the current situation along the Yangtze River has yet to reach the danger level, it is definitely at a crucial point," the China Daily quoted senior flood official Wang Jingquan as saying.
If heavy rains hit the upper reaches of the Yangtze, severe flooding similar to that of 1998 was expected, Mr Wang said.
More than 4,000 people died in Yangtze floods in 1998, and more than 18 million people were displaced, China Daily said.
Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces have all been hard hit by July’s heavy rains and floods.