Death toll from tornado in China rises to 99

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – The death toll from a powerful tornado has risen to 99 after extreme weather conditions battered China’s eastern Jiangsu Province earlier this week.

State news agency Xinhua cited the government of Yangcheng city as saying Sunday that the storm Thursday left 846 others wounded, with 152 of them sustaining serious injuries.

A press release said 1,591 resident who were left homeless are being accommodated in temporary shelters in two counties, as workers repair damaged electric, water and telecommunication facilities in the area.

Rainstorms and hailstorms ripped through the coastal city Thursday, while a tornado toppled houses and hurled cement ships onto the shore.

Xinhua quoted Zheng Yongguang, an official at the China Meteorological Administration, as saying that the tornado was ranked as having an intensity of EF-4, the second strongest rating, with winds of 73 meters (240 feet) per second.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang had responded to the disaster by instructing authorities to make every effort to rescue the injured and minimize casualties.