A tornado killed seven people and seriously injured 72 in
Jiangsu Province on Wednesday. It was the worst of several extreme
weather events that have hit China in recent days.
It struck at around 4:40 PM, sweeping through several townships
of Yancheng City's Jianhu County and destroying over 2,600 houses,
according to the Yangtze Evening News. Some 500
people reported minor injuries.
Total damage to crops has not yet been assessed.?
Dazhi Village was the hardest hit, with four dead and 30
seriously injured.
The twister also disrupted power and telecommunications systems
in the two worst hit townships.
Most of the victims were hit by debris from collapsed
houses.
Also on Tuesday, Huludao, a coastal city in northeast China's
Liaoning Province, was hit by a fierce thunderstorm, but no
injuries were reported.
"I was at the center of the storm. A lightning bolt struck an
18-meter-tall poplar tree, flowed through the cement roof of a
warehouse and exploded inside," said an official named Mou from the
local weather bureau.
Mou said the storm struck in a suburb of the town with few
inhabitants.
"It was around 3:00 in the morning when we were awakened by a
great noise outside," said one villager, as quoted by Chinese
Business Morning. "My wife and I got up and heard the huge
rumbles coming closer and closer. Suddenly we saw the poplar
crowned by fire and then bang, with a large explosion the fireball
burst and hit the house next to ours just like a firecracker."
All lights in the village went out the moment the bolt
struck.
"Our TV receiver was set on fire instantly and turned black,"
said another resident who was watching TV at the time.
According to Mou, almost all electronic appliances of the 200
local inhabitants were damaged by the storm, including TV sets,
telephones and computers, adding that power was still down.
Also on Tuesday, a sandstorm hit the city of Ji'nan in the
eastern province of Shandong. Visibility was reduced to only a few
dozen meters.
Much of northern China has been visited by the worst sandstorms
so far this year, brought by strong northerly winds hitting areas
from Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and
reaching as far as Shandong.
(China Daily April 21, 2005)