Xinhua News Agency reported that, according to a notice from the Fujian Provincial Steering Committee for Flood and Drought Control, as of 10 pm on September 4 (local time), the entire province has mobilized more than 154,000 turns of officials to go to the grassroots level, completing the evacuation of 599,300 people in dangerous areas at sea and land to safe places.
Faced with the complicated developments of rain and floods and the impact of Typhoon Saudel, functional agencies of Fujian province have raised the level of emergency response for flood prevention to level III (above a 4-level scale), and at the same time maintained a level IV storm warning, especially paying attention to the risk of landslides with delays after heavy rain accumulates.
In order to support localities to overcome the consequences, the Fujian provincial government urgently allocated 210 million yuan (about 29.6 million USD) to serve rescue, relief and people's livelihood recovery.
Putian City is one of the focal points suffering the heaviest damage. As of September 4, Putian National Meteorological Station recorded 24 hours of rainfall reaching 416.5mm, breaking the record for one-day rainfall in September in this locality. Rising floodwaters have collapsed many works, isolated many residential areas and paralyzed traffic infrastructure.
In order to respond to the emergency situation, tens of thousands of rescue workers, along with police, firefighters and soldiers, were mobilized to deep flooded areas, using lifeboats and excavators to rescue the elderly and young children.
The entire city of Bo Dien has opened 1,145 centralized evacuation points, distributing more than 7,800 portions of necessities, medicines and drinking water to people.
By the night of September 4 (local time), water levels in many areas began to gradually recede. On key national highways and provincial roads, road management units and the electricity sector are on duty overnight to clean up soil and rocks, treat sludge and repair power grid infrastructure to soon restore production and daily life.
Previously, Typhoon Saudel had made landfall in China twice, sweeping through neighboring Zhejiang province. According to meteorologists, a typhoon making landfall three times in a row in the same coastal strip is an unusual and rare development.
The complicated path of the typhoon after two sweeps in Zhejiang continues to pour huge amounts of moisture into Fujian, causing soil water saturation and pushing the drainage infrastructure of urban areas into serious overload.
