15 Dead Mostly Elderly in Landslide in Hunan Province, China

A landslide accident occurred in China, resulting in 15 deaths, due to the impact of Typhoon 'Gaemi', the third typhoon that struck Taiwan and southern China.

According to local media such as China Central Television (CCTV) and Xinhua News Agency on the 28th, at around 8:18 a.m. that day, a landslide caused by flooding occurred in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, burying 21 people at a lodging facility, of whom 15 died.

[Image source= Xinhua News Agency]

Most of the deceased were confirmed to be elderly. All missing persons have been identified, and all injured were transported to hospitals for treatment. Local media reported that the collapsed building was a lodging facility that had been in operation for more than 10 years.

Hunan Province is one of the regions in China most severely affected by recent abnormal weather phenomena. Earlier this month, flooding caused the collapse of a levee on the northeastern shore of Dongting Lake, forcing more than 6,000 residents to evacuate.

According to the China Meteorological Administration, Typhoon Gaemi made landfall on the southeastern coast of China’s Fujian Province, facing Taiwan, on the 25th, then caused damage across central and southern regions including Guangdong Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Hunan Province, and Hubei Province, as well as eastern regions such as Shandong Province and northeastern regions including Liaoning Province and Jilin Province.

The northward-moving typhoon weakened as it turned westward near central Hubei Province the previous day, and Chinese meteorological authorities discontinued the typhoon classification for Gaemi at 8 a.m. local time on the day.

However, not only Hunan Province but also Guangdong Province experienced rainfall exceeding 300 mm on the 26th and 27th, and some areas in Fujian Province recorded up to 512 mm of precipitation by the 27th, with heavy rainfalls ranging from 250 to 400 mm. The Central Meteorological Observatory issued heavy rain warnings for more than 10 provinces, including central provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, Henan, southwestern provinces such as Yunnan and Guizhou, southern Guangdong Province, and three northeastern provinces.

The Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, reported that as of the morning of the 26th, over 620,000 people were displaced in Fujian Province, and the area of crop damage reached 85.13 hectares (1 hectare = 10,000 square meters). The direct economic loss caused by the typhoon was estimated at over 11.46 million yuan (approximately 2.2 billion KRW). The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management of China allocated 475 million yuan from the central government budget for natural disaster relief.

There were also casualties in Taiwan. According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency and others, the Taiwan Central Disaster Response Center reported that as of 8 p.m. the previous day, 10 people had died, 2 were missing, and 895 were injured due to the typhoon. Taiwanese authorities received 15,758 reports of typhoon damage by the previous day, with cumulative damages estimated at 1.79 billion New Taiwan dollars (approximately 75.5 billion KRW).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.