Muifa downgraded, rain continues in NE China
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Xinhua, August 9, 2011
Muifa, the ninth tropical storm to affect China this year, has weakened into a depression, but continued to bring rain to northeast China Tuesday.
According to the website of the Central Meteorological Station, the storm weakened into a depression at about 2 a.m. in northeast China's Liaoning Province, after making landfall over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
It was moving northeast at a speed of 30 km per hour, said Ge Jianshan, vice head of the flood control and drought relief office of the Ji'an City in Jilin Province.
Downpours had given way to showers in Ji'an Tuesday morning, while ships resumed services for tourists on the Yalu River which borders the DPRK.
However, the Central Meteorological Station forecasted that from Tuesday to Wednesday morning, Muifa would still bring rain to northeast China and gales off the coast of Liaoning. It warned local governments to be on alert for geographical disasters.
Starting from Monday evening, Muifa had brought torrential rain to most regions in Heilongjiang Province, neighboring Jilin in northeast China.
According to the weather forecast, gales and downpours will continue to batter some regions in Heilongjiang till Wednesday. Local governments have been alerted to ensure people's safety and that flood protection facilities are working well, said Lu Bing, director with the provincial water conservancy bureau.
Gales and downpours brought by the tropical storm since Thursday last week have hit 214 counties in the provinces of Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and the Shanghai Municipality, the National Commission for Disaster Reduction said Tuesday.
As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, strong winds and heavy rain had impacted on the lives of 5.14 million people and forced evacuation of more than 1.47 million, and had caused the collapse or damage of a total of 14,300 houses, according to a statement issued by the commission.
The disaster has caused a direct economic loss of 4.24 billion yuan (about 658 million U.S. dollars) in the five provincial-level regions, the statement added.
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