BEIJING — At least 25 people died in China and 27 in the Philippines after Typhoon Usagi swept over the South China Sea and caused floods in southern China's Guangdong province on Monday, reports said.
Residents of Guangdong's worst-hit city, Shanwei, said the typhoon, which hit land in China late Sunday, was the strongest for 30 years.
At least 13 people died in Shanwei, while 12 died in three other areas of Guangdong, some 310,000 were evacuated and several thousand homes were destroyed, authorities said.
"The toll in our city included seven deaths at a railway construction site," state media quoted Xiao Zhan, deputy head of the Shanwei Water Authority, as saying.
"The majority of casualties were due to the collapse of houses where people took shelter," Xiao said.
In nearby Shantou city, a local resident told the German news agency dpa by telephone that seawater pushed by the typhoon had flooded the streets.
