14 dead over the weekend in Chinese city due to flooding caused by typhoon Doksuri

At least 14 people died over the weekend in the Chinese city of Shulan due to the devastation caused by typhoon Doksuri which has been battering China for days now.

Northeastern China, Beijing and Hebei province have seen heavy rainfall, floods and landslides since the typhoon made landfall in southern Fujian province two weeks ago, leaving 15,000 people displaced.

The deaths reported over the weekend in Shulan, in northeastern Jilin province, come after more than 20 people died last week in Beijing and Hebei due to record-shattering rainfall. Authorities have yet to provide an overall death toll for the entire country.

Three officials were among the dead in Shulan, including a vice mayor of the city of about 587,000 people, state media reported late on Sunday.

Water levels in the city have receded to safe levels and emergency response efforts have been mobilised to relocate residents and repair infrastructure. Power had been restored to 14,305 homes, state media reported.

Regional authorities said sections of the Songhua, the main river in northeastern China, and the Nenjiang tributary, remained at dangerously high levels.

Over the past five days, rainfall in the south of Heilongjiang’s capital Harbin and nearby city Mudanjiang in northern Jilin province and in Yanbian in its east have recorded cumulative precipitation of almost or more than 3.93 inches, the national forecaster said.

Power was also restored to many flood-hit areas of Beijing and in Hebei province. Efforts to resume power supply in the northeastern provinces Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning are ongoing, state broadcaster CCTV said.

As authorities scramble to restore normal living conditions after the passing storms emerging from Doksuri, the national forecaster warned the northeastern region to brace itself for more rough weather from another typhoon, Khanun.

The typhoon, which has taken an unusual, meandering path around Japan’s southwestern islands for more than a week, can bring winds and rainstorms to China’s northeast by the weekend as it travels over the Korean peninsula.

As it moves northward from Japan, Khanun could build up its speed and intensity before hitting South Korea’s coast on Thursday, China’s weather forecaster said.

In light of the forecast, South Korea will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts by bus from a coastal jamboree site as Khanun looms, officials said Monday.

Vehicles beginning Tuesday morning will move 36,000 scouts – mostly teenagers – from the World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern county of Buan, according to Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

He said most of the scouts, who come from 158 countries, will be accommodated at venues in capital city Seoul and the nearby metropolitan area.

While typhoons are frequent in the region this time of the year, scientists have said that unusually hotter temperatures due to the man-made climate crisis is making tropical storms more intense.

China has been hit hard by extreme weather in recent months, from record-breaking heatwaves to deadly rain.

In July, China recorded its highest-ever temperature at 52.2C and employers across the country were ordered to limit outdoor work due to blistering heat. Meanwhile, Beijing recorded its heaviest rainfall in over 140 years in July.

Additional reporting by agencies