BEIJING, China (AP) — Typhoon Saomai, the most powerful storm to hit China in five decades, raged ashore Thursday and churned across the crowded southeast, killing at least two people, wrecking houses and capsizing ships after 1.5 million residents were evacuated.
Damage was expected to be widespread in areas that were still recovering from Tropical Storm Bilis, which claimed more than 600 lives last month.
Saomai, with winds of up to 216 kph (135 mph), hit land in China in the coastal town of Mazhan in Zhejiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The area is about 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) south of the Chinese capital, Beijing, which wasn’t affected.
The Zhejiang provincial weather bureau said it was the most powerful storm to strike China since the founding of the communist government in 1949, Xinhua said.
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