Storms lash Southeast Asia, disease fears grow in India

Storms lash Southeast Asia, disease fears grow in India

Agencies, Manila/Beijing

Twin storms battered Southeast Asia on Tuesday, while in India
and Bangladesh, officials were trying to stem outbreaks of
disease as monsoon floods recede.

At least six people were killed on Tuesday when powerful
Typhoon Imbudo swept across the northern Philippines, disrupting
power at the main international airport and ripping off roofs.

In northern Vietnam, Tropical Storm Koni, downgraded from a
typhoon, lashed the region after engulfing southern China's
Hainan island on Monday night.

Koni dumped heavy rains on Hainan and disrupted flights but
caused little damage and no deaths or injuries had been reported,
the official Xinhua news agency said.

Imbudo, which means "funnel" in the Pilipino language, is the
strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since 1998, swept across
rice and corn-growing areas on the main island of Luzon and
dumped heavy rains on the central Visayas and southern Mindanao
regions.

The Department of Agriculture said it had no immediate reports
on the extent of damage to crops.

The weather bureau said Imbudo had intensified since Monday,
with winds of 190 kph (118 mph) and gusts of 230 kph (143 mph).
It was expected to move northwest toward Hong Kong on Thursday.

Taiwan issued a warning to ships on Thursday as the storm
headed for the southern Chinese coast.

In China, more than 3.5 million people have been left homeless
by floods, the International Federation of Red Cross said on
Tuesday as it launched an emergency appeal for help.

"An enormous number of people are living under plastic
sheeting or in tents on top of the very dikes whose rupture
destroyed their homes and their fields," said Alisdair Henley,
head of the Red Cross's delegation in Beijing.

"These people then have to go back and rebuild their lives and
livelihoods -- and they need all the help they can get."

A Red Cross assessment mission to the worst affected areas in
eastern, central and southern China concluded that around 100
million people were affected in 16 provinces.

Many of them have lost all their belongings and will be unable
to return home for several weeks.

Hundreds of people have been killed and the death toll
continues to rise daily.

Authorities in Vietnam's northern coastal provinces urged
fishermen to return to port as Koni, which means "swan" in
Korean, moved in from the Tonkin Gulf and by late Tuesday had
been downgraded further to a tropical low-pressure system.

Weather officials said wind speeds at the center of the storm
were 39 to 61 kilometers (24 to 40 miles) per hour, down sharply
on earlier wind strength, and a weather report said it would dump
torrential rains on eight provinces along a 500 km (310 mile)
stretch.

In Japan, Kyodo news agency said the death toll from weekend
flooding and mudslides in the south rose to 15 on Tuesday with
seven missing. A meteorological agency official said there was no
heavy rain in the area on Tuesday.

In northern India, the Red Cross on Tuesday dispatched food
and medicine to remote areas where hundreds are suffering from
malaria and water-borne diseases after the worst floods in 50
years.

Flood waters have receded in the northeastern state of Assam
but authorities have declared an epidemic alert because about a
million displaced people are still living in temporary shelters
with no access to clean drinking water.

Five people have died of diarrhea since Sunday and authorities
have sounded an epidemic alert throughout the state because many
places remain waterlogged.

South Asia's annual monsoon, which began in June, has wreaked
havoc in eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh, killing nearly 350
people and damaging infrastructure.

Floodwaters were also receding slowly from most affected areas
in Bangladesh with virtually no rain over past few days,
officials said on Tuesday.