Tropical storm Fengshen leaves 14 dead in Guangdong

GUANGZHOU, June 28 (Xinhua)-- Torrential rain from tropical storm Fengshen has killed 14 with nine others missing in south China's Guangdong Province, according to the local authority on Saturday.

Pedestrians walk past a fallen tree across a street in Hong Kong June 25, 2008. Tropical storm Fengshen struck Southeast China coast on Wednesday after tearing through the Philippines last week, bringing driving rain, uprooting trees and closing schools and businesses.

In addition, the strong rain had affected about 340,000 people, destroyed more than 1,200 houses and inundated more than 640,000 hectares of crops, a provincial flood control headquarters spokesman said Friday.

It had also damaged roads, power lines, reservoirs and embankments. The total direct economic loss was estimated at about 1.2 billion yuan ($175 million), the spokesman said.

Fengshen, which means "God of Wind," had brought about downpours and made rivers swollen in most parts of Guangdong after landing at the province's Shenzhen City early Wednesday.

The provincial flood control headquarters have warned against rain-triggered geological disasters and dispatched disaster relief teams to hard-hit areas, the spokesman said.

Fengshen moved northward into neighboring Jiangxi Province on Thursday noon and was downgraded to a tropical low pressure storm. Prior to its landfall, landslides triggered by a heavy downpour killed a villager in Jiangxi Province's Yongfeng County.

Meteorologists forecast Fengshen would affect Jiangxi for 36 hours, bringing more heavy rain in the central and southern areas of the province. It was continuing to move northeastward.

Fengshen was downgraded from typhoon level. Hundreds were dead or missing in the Philippines after the typhoon hit the country last week.