At least 39 people were killed in flooding after a tropical storm brought torrential rain to the country's south, Chinese authorities said Thursday, while the east coast and Taiwan braced for a typhoon expected to make landfall in the coming days.
Most of the deaths were in Hengzhou, where the partial collapse of a reservoir dam sent torrents of water into the city and claimed 26 lives, said Ding Wei, the vice mayor of Nanning city, which has jurisdiction over the area. Nine people remained missing in the broader Guangxi region.
Tropical Storm Maysak brought record rainfall to Guangxi starting Saturday, breaching reservoirs and stranding people for days in homes and other buildings. The previously announced death toll Tuesday was six people.
A second storm, Typhoon Bavi, was at sea on a northwest track that would take it over some remote Japanese islands and then just north of Taiwan before making landfall in China's Fujian or Zhejiang province on Saturday.
Fishing boats could be seen tightly packed at ports in northern Taiwan on Thursday in anticipation of heavy rain hitting the island of 23 million people.
