China fires 3 officials after typhoon in east killed 83

BEIJING – The Chinese government has fired three officials in an eastern province after a strong tropical storm killed 83 people and left 19 others missing, an official news agency reported Monday.

Typhoon Nepartak, which had weakened to a tropical storm when it hit China, toppled nearly 10,000 houses in eastern Fujian province’s capital of Fuzhou over the past week, Xinhua News Agency said.

The county of Minqing was the worst hit, reporting 73 deaths and 17 missing, and widespread cuts to power and telecommunications services, the report said.

The county’s deputy party chief and acting head, Huang Shiyang, and two other officials have been suspended from their duties, Xinhua said.

Nepartak made landfall in China on July 9. Authorities said then that about half a million people had been evacuated.

China is already contending with some of the worst flooding the country has experienced in recent years, with nonstop rain since June along the Yangtze River killing more than 230 people and leaving dozens missing.