Tropical storm Krosa has affected more than 5 million people in east China's Zhejiang Province after it drenched the Chinese mainland's southeast coast.

Krosa landed on the coast between Zhejiang and Fujian provinces on Sunday afternoon as a typhoon, the 16th this year. It quickly weakened into a tropical storm without causing any casualties on the Chinese mainland.

The storm prompted the evacuation of more than 1.41 million people in the two provinces, affected 5.38 million residents in 649 townships of seven cities across Zhejiang. It incurred 4.58 billion yuan in economic losses, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said on Monday.

Krosa brought about strong winds and an average precipitation of 127 mm over the past two days, pulling down at least 1,651 houses, inundating parts of four counties and causing rivers to swell, according to the headquarters.

The storm paralyzed transportation services, cut off power supplies, suspended schooling and tourist businesses in some areas.

Ship services between Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, and Mawei resumed on Monday after being halted on Saturday.

Krosa has been hovering over Zhejiang since Sunday and is now moving eastward at a speed of about 10 km per hour.

In the eastern metropolis of Shanghai, where the Special Olympics is taking place, the city government had relocated about 8,800 people, mainly workers, by Sunday evening from coastal areas amid gales and torrential rains of up to 160 mm.

Rescuers saved 22 sailors of two Zhejiang-registered ships, both stranded near Shanghai beach early Sunday morning.

Krosa has left five dead, two missing and 56 injured in Taiwan, in addition to cutting off power supplies and halting highway and air traffic, according to Taiwan media reports.
 

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2007)