2 killed, flights canceled as Typhoon Conson strikes southern China

2 killed as typhoon strikes southern China

BEIJING — A typhoon that left dozens dead in the Philippines and killed two in southern China wrecked several Vietnamese ships Saturday while churning toward northern Vietnam as a strong tropical storm.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said several Vietnamese ships had been wrecked off islands in the South China Sea. It cited Hainan’s maritime affairs bureau as saying there was no word on whether anyone had died and rescue efforts were under way. A man answering the telephone in the maritime bureau said he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Typhoon Conson, China’s first typhoon of the year, struck the southern resort island of Hainan on Friday. Xinhua said a falling billboard killed a motorcycle rider, and another toppled and buried a security guard under debris.

By 8 a.m. Saturday, Hainan’s meteorological station said Conson was moving northwest over open water again and had downshifted into a strong tropical storm. It was expected to hit northern Vietnam on Saturday afternoon or evening and was moving at 12 miles (20 kilometers) an hour.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged authorities in 23 northern and central provinces to ban ships and fishing trawlers from sailing.

Authorities were planning to evacuate some 137,000 people from high-risk areas in Vietnam’s northern province of Thanh Hoa, said disaster official Nguyen Trong Hai.

“People in coastal villages and places of high risks of flash floods and landslides in 11 mountainous districts have been told to be ready for evacuation at any time,” Hai said.

The national floods and storms control department said another 10,000 were being evacuated in three other northern provinces. An official in the northern port city of Hai Phong said 19,000 people from coastal districts were being moved, as well as 1,200 people on the island of Cat Hai.

The storm left a mess in Hainan, China’s version of Hawaii. Provincial officials said 79 flights were canceled Friday night in the resort city of Sanya, but flights resumed Saturday.

The storm killed 53 people and left 85 missing in the Philippines. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III scolded the weather bureau for failing to predict that Conson would hit Manila, which left government agencies unprepared for the onslaught.

As the storm moved northwest, the southern areas of China’s manufacturing-heavy Guangdong province and the neighboring Guangxi region were expected to see torrential rains. But Conson was not expected to hit areas in China already battered by weeks of flooding.

Flooding and landslides in communities along the Yangtze River and other scattered parts of China have killed more than 130 people so far this month, and Xinhua reported Friday night that flooding and landslides killed at least 11 people Friday in the central province of Hubei.

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez in Manila and Tran Van Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam, and researcher Henry Hou in Beijing contributed to this report.