Typhoon Soudelor forces 181,000 to evacuate in E. China

The 13th typhoon this year has left four people dead and forced 181,000 to evacuate in east China's Anhui Province since it entered the province on Sunday morning. Local authorities said on Monday that more than 550,000 people and 20,000 hectares of crops in ten cities were affected by the typhoon. Some 560 houses collapsed and another 1,200 were damaged, with direct economic losses totaled $91.5 million.

The typhoon had left 14 people dead and another four missing in neighboring Zhejiang Province as of Sunday afternoon, and has left three people dead, and another person missing in Fujian province, with more than 1.3 million people affected. China's weather authority has lifted a typhoon warning after typhoon Soudelor was downgraded to a tropical storm. The storm is now moving heading north at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour from the border area of Jiangxi, Hubei and and Anhui Provinces. Weather authorities say it will further weaken to an extra-tropical cyclone. But the storm will continue bringing downpours and powerful winds to eastern China.