More than 1.5 million people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in East China's Zhejiang and Fujian provinces before the most powerful storm to hit the country in five decades made landfall yesterday afternoon.

Fujian reported two deaths in Fuding city and 12 others are missing elsewhere in the province while scores have been injured in Zhejiang.

Typhoon Saomai, packing winds of 216 kilometres per hour (kph), made landfall at 5:25 pm in Cangnan County of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, bringing heavy downpours and gales, said the Central Meteorological Observatory.

The typhoon was moving northwest at 20 kph.

It destroyed more than 1,000 houses and cut 97 per cent of power lines in the county, leaving toppled trees and broken billboards in its wake.

More 80 people have been injured, according to local sources, and 20,000 hectares of rice fields inundated.

The typhoon brought more than 50 millimetres of rain within eight hours yesterday in Leqing and Cangnan in Zhejiang, said the provincial meteorological observatory.

Saomai is the most powerful typhoon to hit the country since the founding of New China in 1949, Xinhua said, citing the Zhejiang provincial weather bureau.

Saomai is the Vietnamese name for the planet Venus; and is the eighth powerful storm to hit China during this year's unusually violent typhoon season.

Heavy rains and gales will continue to lash the coastal areas after Saomai moves further inland.

According to Wang Dongfa, director of the provincial meteorological observatory in Zhejiang, Saomai was expected to roar into East China's Jiangxi Province in the wee hours today.

About 20,000 soldiers and paramilitary forces were deployed yesterday to boost rescue and disaster relief efforts.

They were ordered to help relocate people in danger, guide returning fishing boats, and contribute to flood prevention, according to military sources.

More than 40 flights from Wenzhou were cancelled or delayed. About 34,000 vessels in Zhejiang and 36,000 in Fujian returned to port, Xinhua reported.

"Airlines would probably be out of service tomorrow," an airport official said yesterday.

In Beijing, 160 flights bound for Zhejiang and Fujian were delayed and 19 flights cancelled, said an official at the Capital International Airport.

In Hong Kong, the airport said that 10 flights to Taiwan and Fuzhou had been cancelled and 16 delayed as of mid-afternoon.

Earlier in the Philippines, two people died and seven were reported missing after giant waves and heavy rains generated by the typhoon battered coastal villages, officials said.

Saomai passed across the Japan's Okinawa island group on Wednesday with winds up to 144 kph, prompting airlines to cancel 141 flights and affecting 24,000 passengers.

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, this year's natural disasters have claimed the lives of 1,699 with 415 missing; and led to direct losses of 120 billion yuan (US$14.8 billion) till Wednesday. The casualty figure is the highest in the past five years.

Even as Saomai stormed ashore, forecasters were already closely watching Tropical Storm Bopha, which was trailing farther out in the Pacific.

Bopha crossed Taiwan overnight, with sustained winds of 65 kph, but no major damage or casualties were reported.

Xinhua, agencies contributed to the story

Source: China Daily