Tropical storm Matmo brings heavy rains to Shanghai, other parts of eastern China

Tropical Storm Matmo. Photo from nasa.gov.

BEIJING—Tropical storm Matmo brought heavy rains and winds to parts of eastern China on Thursday following another typhoon that killed at least 56 people in the country’s south.

Matmo was travelling north through the mountainous eastern province of Fujian after making landfall on Wednesday, packing gusts of up to 85 miles (137 kilometres) per hour. It was forecast to bring thunderstorms to Shanghai and surrounding areas later Thursday.

The former typhoon weakened to a tropical storm upon arriving in southeastern China after earlier dumping heavy rain on Taiwan, where it knocked out power to more than 30,000 homes and is considered a likely factor in the crash of a plane on the island of Penghu that killed 58 passengers and crew.

Residents of southern China are still recovering from last week’s Typhoon Rammasun that killed at least 56 people there. That storm was the strongest to hit China in four decades, but emergency preparations helped minimize the damage. It killed a total of at least 165 people in China, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, where 98 died and five were missing.

No casualties or serious damage were reported in mainland China as a result of Matmo. However, the National Meteorological Center advised residents of eastern China to prepare for torrential rain expected over a swathe of eastern China from Fujian in the south to Shandong province in the north.

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.