Typhoon Nepartak causes historic flooding in China

Historic amounts of flooding and crop damage along with the evacuation of more than 438,000 people, cancelled flights, ferry and rail services are all a result of the heavy precipitation and storms caused by Typhoon Nepartak, according to catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide.

Although Nepartak weakened as it crossed southern Taiwan and Taiwan Straight last week, it brought additional flooding to the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Jiangxi over the weekend.

“China experiences more tropical cyclone landfalls than any of its neighbors in the Northwest Pacific, and Fujian is one of the Chinese provinces most often affected by typhoons,” said Peter Sousounis, assistant vice president and director of meteorology at AIR Worldwide.

“However, exposures in the province are somewhat protected by Taiwan, which lies directly to the east across the Taiwan Strait. Although storms that cross the mountainous terrain of Taiwan may regain typhoon status before making landfall on China’s mainland coast, they are typically weakened.

“Even these weakened storms, however, can bring heavy rainfall and significant flooding, which can contribute more to insured losses than typhoon winds. The region experiences 10 times as many weak typhoons as strong ones.”

Sousounis continued: “Nepartak made landfall Saturday at 1:45pm local time (05:45 UTC) in Shishi City on the coast of Fujian, maintaining winds of 90 kilometres per hour (56 miles per hour). In addition to gusty winds at landfall, heavy precipitation fell, with 250 millimetres (9.8 inches) recorded in the city of Putian. The storm system weakened into a strong tropical storm as it progressed into Jiangxi province on Sunday and then dissipated.”

According to AIR, it is too early for comprehensive damage reports to emerge from the region. Numerous landslides have already been reported in rural and mountainous areas, one of which trapped 18 iron workers in a factory in Fujian’s Gutian County. Roads have been damaged or inundated, and part of a highway flyover collapsed in Minqing County. Many buildings are reported to have collapsed.

AIR also said that because of an extended period of unusually heavy rain, southern China was already experiencing unprecedented amounts of flooding and crop damage before Nepartak. Along the Yangtze River and its tributaries, 164 people have been killed by hail and rain-induced flooding since June 30, 1.8 million people evacuated, and 56,000 houses and 560,500 hectares of crops destroyed according to local authorities’ estimates.
The extent of flood losses and crop damage that can be directly attributed to Typhoon Nepartak is highly uncertain because of the pre-existing conditions, said AIR.