At least 107 people were killed in floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Morakot which ravaged Taiwan over the weekend. Hundreds of people are still missing in remote villages in the south of the country.
Taiwan has begun a helicopter rescue of more than 700 people who were found alive in three villages flattened by landslides triggered by the torrential rains that accompanied Typhoon Morakot, a senior military officer said.
Flooding and landslides in Taiwan triggered by Typhoon Morakot have killed at least 50 people and scores are still missing, according to rescuers. About 100 people are feared dead after a mudslide caused by the typhoon buried a small village.
At least 42 people died and scores more were reported missing on Tuesday after typhoons ravaged Taiwan and Japan, causing floods and landslides and toppling multi-storey buildings as parts of the region experienced their worst weather in 50 years.
Dozens of lives have been claimed across northeastern Asia as Typhoon Morakot and tropical storm Etau have devastated the region. Japan, which is now bracing itself for the arrival of Etau, has seen at least thirteen deaths due to flash floods.
Typhoon Morakot battered China’s east coast on Sunday, killing a child and flattening houses. Around a million people in coastal Fujian province and neighbouring Zhejiang were moved to safer areas ahead of the typhoon’s arrival, Xinhua reported.
Bangladesh and India launched large-scale relief operations after a cyclone spawned a a four-metre surge that devastated the northern Bay of Bengal on Monday, killing at least 126 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
At least 94 people have died after a cyclone slammed into the coasts of Bangladesh and India on Monday. Emergency services are scrambling to deliver food and shelter to the hundreds of thousands of people still marooned.
Survivors of the deadly Cyclone Nargis, which slammed Burma last year, are still in desperate need of food and shelter, according to UN and aid agencies. Aid workers are now allowed in the country, but long-term programmes are needed.
Tropical storm Dolly grew into a cyclone on Tuesday as it travelled across the Gulf of Mexico towards the US-Mexican border. Thousands have been evacuated in Mexico while oil drilling companies have started calling back their offshore staff.
