Deadly Typhoon Gaemi has made landfall in China after sinking two large ships and causing an oil spill, bringing havoc to Taiwan and Philippines.
The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties in the country.
Gaemi, which has been downgraded to a tropical storm, has killed at least 34 people in Philippines and eight in Taiwan.
More than 850 people were injured and one person was declared missing in Taiwan due to the storm, the emergency operations centre said.
The typhoon also triggered flooding and landslides in Philippines, where the storm is called Carina, leaving some 600,000 displaced, local media reported.
Manila declared a "state of calamity" after the widespread flooding.
Efforts were underway to clean up an oil spill that could reach Philippines' capital following the sinking of a tanker in rough seas.
The MT Terra Nova was en route between Bataan and Iloilo provinces in the Philippines, carrying about 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel, when it was struck by huge waves.
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It sank shortly after midnight on Thursday, according to the coastguard, with the body of a missing crew member found in the sea.
The other 16 crew members rescued from the vessel.
"There is already oil spill. Right now, we cannot dispatch our resources because of strong winds and high waves," Transportation secretary Jaime Bautista told a situation briefing.
The oil slick is several kilometres long.
Local authorities say there is no indication that the industrial fuel the vessel was carrying is behind the slick.
Work is ongoing in the area to contain the slick and siphon off the highly toxic industrial fuel to prevent further damage in challenging conditions.
The tanker was one of two ships to sink as the storm whipped up seas in the region.
Taiwan's fire department said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had also sunk off the island's south-western coast near the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
Its crew members were forced to abandon ship in life jackets, while the captain's body was later pulled from the water.
Other ships were grounded on the coast of Taiwan, which received 1,200mm of rain on Thursday.
Thousands evacuated from China's south
Gaemi, the third and most powerful storm to hit China's eastern seaboard this year, made landfall in the country's Fujian province on Thursday evening, according to the provincial meteorological bureau of Fujian.
With a maximum wind speed of 118 kilometres per hour at its centre, the typhoon landed at the Xiuyu District in the city of Putian, according to the bureau.
More than 290,000 people were relocated because of the storm, and more than 5,000 rescuers in the cities of Fuzhou, Putian and Ningde, and Pingtan County were put on stand-by, according to the provincial flood control headquarters.
About 85 hectares of crops were damaged in Fujian province and economic losses were estimated at 11.5 million yuan ($2.42 million), according to Chinese media reports.
Gaemi made its first landfall at about midnight on Thursday in eastern Taiwan's Yilan county.
Many businesses and schools were closed in Taiwan for a second day on Thursday after Gaemi pounded parts of the country with wind gusts that reached up to 227kph.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has since announced that cash payments of $20,000 New Taiwan dollars ($931) would be given to households in severely flooded areas.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered authorities to speed up efforts in delivering food and other aid to isolated rural villages earlier this week, saying people may not have eaten for days.
Central China flooding risk
While Gaemi has been downgraded as a tropical storm due to the slower wind speeds, its vast cloud bands remain a significant flood risk, particularly to rivers in central China already elevated due to an earlier bout of summer rains.
Scientists have warned that global warming was worsening tropical storms, making them less frequent but much more intense, according to a report published on Friday.
Hours ahead of the typhoon's arrival, the Standing Committee of the Communist Party's politburo, helmed by President Xi Jinping, held a special meeting on flood control and urged cadres across the country to protect lives.
Due to the typhoon, 72 townships across Fujian province recorded an accumulated precipitation exceeding 250mm, with the highest reaching 512.8mm, local weather bureaus said.
By late Friday, Gaemi is expected to reach Jiangxi province, home to Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake.
The storm is expected to bring heavy rains in the coming days as it moves north-west across Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan provinces.
Oil spreads 'much further' in rough seas
Katrina Davis, an associate professor in conservation biology at Oxford University, said the rough seas would complicate the oil spill clean-up off the Philippines.
"The rougher our conditions, all else being equal, we would expect to see whatever is spilled being spread much further than it would otherwise be."
One of the ship's crew died, while the other 16 were rescued.
Typhoon Gaemi has lashed the region over the last 48 hours, bringing heavy rain and flooding around Manila.
Dr Davis said the impacts of the spill could be wide-ranging.
"A lot of the population is reliant on tourism and on coral reefs for fishing, for their major protein source," she said.
According to China's Ministry of Water Resources, the typhoon is projected to impact seven major river basins across China in about six days after it made landfall on the mainland.
Posted, updated