Seventeen people have been confirmed killed and eight missing in Zhejiang and Taiwan provinces after Typhoon Haitang this week, with direct economic losses valued at 8.1 billion yuan (US$1 billion).

According to the Taiwan Disaster Rescue Center, quoted by Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, twelve were left dead on the island and two are yet to be unaccounted for.

Five people were killed in Zhejiang, where six others are still in missing and more than 12 thousand houses destroyed.

The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said today that, by Thursday morning, economic losses there totaled 7.22 billion yuan (US$870 million).

A 200 kilogram Minke whale was beached by the typhoon yesterday in Zhangpu County of Fujian Province, according to the local fishing bureau.

Thought to have been injured on a rock, the two meter-long whale was transported to Xiamen City for treatment, but died on the way there.

Typhoon Haitang had weakened significantly before arriving in central China's Hunan Province yesterday, according to meteorologists.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn July 22, 2005)