Typhoon Kills 50 In Asia

Over 1M Chinese Evacuated As Tropical Storm Chanchu Pummels South

(AP)  Tropical Storm Chanchu pummeled southern China on Thursday, killing at least 11 people to bring its death toll in Asia to 50 while flooding scores of homes in an area where officials evacuated more than 1 million people.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 11 died after the storm plowed into southern China early Thursday, with four others missing, but gave no details. Earlier reports said eight people were killed near Shantou in the northern tip of China's Guangdong province where the storm made landfall, including two children whose houses collapsed on top of them.

China said just over 1 million people have been moved to safety.

Twenty-seven Vietnamese fishermen, meanwhile, were believed missing after three boats went down in Chinese waters after being swept up in the storm, officials said Thursday.

Another 67 on six other boats were able to safely reach an island, a coast guard official from Vietnam's central Quang Ngai province said. Vietnam has asked Chinese authorities to help search for the missing.

Chanchu was the most severe typhoon to strike the South China Sea region during the month of May and already was blamed for 37 deaths and the destruction of thousands of homes in the Philippines last weekend. It was downgraded to a severe tropical storm after hitting the coast of China early Thursday.

Eight people were killed when the storm made land near Shantou in the northern tip of China's Guangdong province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. included two children who died when their houses collapsed on top of them.

Taiwan also reported the deaths of two women in the southern region of Pingtung who were swept away on Wednesday by floodwaters during heavy rains brought by the typhoon.

China said just over 1 million people have been moved to safety in Guangdong and Fujian provinces just to the north, a number that grew through the day, apparently indicating that most have yet to return home. The storm bypassed the financial center of Hong Kong.

Thousands of people evacuated from fishing boats and low-lying areas were staying with relatives, in tents, or in schools and government warehouses, said an official of the Chaozhou city government in Guangdong near where the storm, then still a typhoon, churned into the coastline on Wednesday.

"The typhoon's impact here was pretty major," said the official, who like many Chinese bureaucrats would only give his surname, Zhang.