People blown from apartments as typhoon-like winds lash China

BEIJING:

Rare storms with typhoon-like winds have killed at least seven people in China’s southern Jiangxi province since the weekend, three of them from their high-rise apartments in their sleep.

The extreme weather, which began on March 31, has overwhelmed nine cities, including Nanchang and Jiujiang, with 93,000 people in 54 counties affected, the Jiangxi Provincial Flood Control Emergency Headquarters said.

On Sunday, freak storms brought gusts that blew door-sized windows from their frames in two apartments in a high-rise building in Nanchang, the provincial capital. Three people were pulled from their beds through the holes, plunging to their deaths, according to local media.

Officials on Wednesday said seven people have died so far across the province and 552 had to be evacuated. They also said 2,751 houses were damaged.

Accompanied by dramatic lightning, heavy rain and hail the size of golf balls, the powerful storms – the heaviest in more than a decade – also caused economic losses of 150 million yuan ($21 million), local officials said.

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The China Meteorological Bureau had issued warnings of violent winds of up to level 12 on local wind scales, equivalent to a Category I typhoon.

Winds of such intensity are common when typhoons, as typhoons are called in China and elsewhere in East Asia, make landfall, but are rarely encountered inland such as landlocked Jiangxi.

China’s national meteorologist has maintained its highest warning – orange – for many parts of southeast China as strong winds, hail and thunderstorms continue into Wednesday.

The meteorologist on Tuesday issued the first orange alert for severe weather since 2013, state media reported.

China has a three-tier weather warning system, color-coded for severe weather, with orange representing the most severe warning, followed by yellow and blue.