BEIJING — Typhoon Bilis uprooted trees and signboards, triggered a landslide that destroyed a railway and wrecked more than 1,000 homes in coastal China, officials said Thursday.
Bilis arrived in China after killing 11 people in Taiwan. Although it weakened after making landfall Wednesday in southeast China's Fujian province, the storm still unleashed destructive winds and rains but caused no casualties, Fujian authorities said.
In Jinjiang city, where Bilis came ashore, more than 300 farmers' houses and a 330-foot-long sea wall collapsed, said a city official who gave only his surname, Zhang.
More than 80 fishing boats were damaged, 200 factories forced to close and 5,767 acres of farmland flooded, Zhang said. He said economic losses totaled $12 million.
In Fujian's provincial capital, Fuzhou, most losses were caused by strong wind. The storm wrecked 845 houses, uprooted more than 4,500 trees and cut electricity to some parts of the city, said a city flood official surnamed Huang. Huang said economic losses in the area totaled $60 million.
Gusts of wind smashed windows and advertising boards in Fuzhou, and rain brought the city's transport system to a halt, the China Daily said. A landslide in northern Fujian destroyed sections of railway, the newspaper said.
A tornado also struck four villages near Yueqing in neighboring Zhejiang province, destroying more than 20 buildings, damaging more than 130 others and injuring 11 people, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Chinese authorities had had time to prepare. The Fujian port of Xiamen gave city workers Wednesday off as Bilis moved in and Xiamen ferry services and a local airline shut down operations.
Boats were ordered into port along Fujian's coast, and airports in Jinjiang, Fuzhou and Xiamen, as well as all Fujian expressways, were closed until late Wednesday afternoon.
Bilis barreled into Fujian having caused major destruction in Taiwan, with seven people missing and more than 100 injured after the storm hit the island late Tuesday with winds of up to 118 mph.
Taiwan began digging out Thursday from the destruction brought on by Bilis, which blocked roads and damaged countless farms with heavy flooding. Some 98,000 acres of rice paddies and orchards were flooded, the Agricultural Council said.
The Taiwanese government offered to compensate farmers who suffered an estimated $116 million in damage. It said it would give the farmers compensation for every acre, offer low-interest loans and tax-reduction schemes and help farmers sell their produce.
Farther south, the death toll from a whirlwind that sank two tourist boats rose to six Thursday, including an Indian couple and one Thai, according to police in the northern province of Quang Ninh. The pilot of one boat was missing and presumed dead.
The whirlwind spun across Halong Bay, 100 miles east of Hanoi, for half an hour Tuesday.
The death toll also has risen from tropical storm Kaemi, which hit seven central provinces over the weekend, with 10 people killed, officials said Thursday.