Over the three days that tropical storm Matsa swept through east
China's Shandong
Province, direct economic losses totaled about 2.76 billion
yuan (US$340 million), including over US$271 million in
agricultural losses, according to Shandong Provincial Civil
Administration statistics released on Tuesday.
Some 3.8 million people have been affected but no deaths were
reported.
Matsa ruined nearly 340,000 hectares of farmland and damaged
some 200,000 buildings, partially snarling transportation
systems.
Also on Tuesday, the Shanghai government rushed emergency
supplies of seeds, fertilizer and pesticides to farmers in
Shanghai's suburbs after many crops were severely damaged by the
typhoon over the weekend.
The emergency measure, which was decided at a hastily called
meeting late on Monday, will provide an expected 120,000 tons of
jimaocai, a green-leaf vegetable that grows rapidly,
starting August 27, according to the Shanghai Agricultural
Commission.
"Shanghai's greens supply has been seriously affected by typhoon
Matsa," Zhang Sirong, director of the commission's vegetable
office, said. Zhang said the city gets most of its vegetables from
the suburbs and neighboring provinces, both of which were hit hard
by Matsa -- the biggest storm to hit Shanghai in eight years.
The city consumes 10,000 tons of vegetables a day, 3,000 tons of
which are green-leaf veggies. The current supply of green-leaf
vegetables is less than 1,000 tons a day, Zhang said.
Matsa flooded 26,667 hectares of farmland in the municipality
over the weekend, causing the most serious devastation in more than
30 years. The government is still calculating the financial losses
from the storm.
Farmers were busy yesterday repairing storage bins, dredging
drainage ditches and plowing rain-soaked soil.
At a news briefing yesterday, Vice Mayor Hu Yanzhao asked all
suburban district chiefs to take every measure necessary to ensure
a steady vegetable supply.
"We must act quickly to plug the supply shortfall," Hu said.
"Meanwhile, we should fully guarantee farmers' incomes."
The government has allocated 70 million yuan (US$8.64 million)
to help farmers resume production. Insurance companies also
earmarked 35 million yuan to cover payouts under potential
claims.
"The?two hectares on which others and I make our living
were totally inundated, and I estimated a loss of more than 100,000
yuan," Zhuang Shengde, a farmer who was mending storage bins on his
plot in Zhuding Village, Songjiang District, said yesterday.
(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2005)