Toll from Typhoon Saomai jumps to 73(AP)Updated: 2006-08-11 10:16 BEIJING - The death toll in coastal China from Typhoon Saomai jumped to at least 73 on Friday, with three others missing, as the most powerful storm to strike the country in five decades churned across the southeast, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Authorities had evacuated more than 1.5 million people from flood-prone areas before storm hit land Thursday evening, wrecking houses and capsizing ships. Most of the deaths occurred in Zhejiang province, where Saomai made landfall, Xinhua said. The bodies of 43 people, including eight children, were discovered in Zhejiang's Cangnan county amid the debris of collapsed houses on Friday morning, Xinhua said. Another 28 people were killed and three were missing in other parts of Zhejiang, Xinhua said, but did not give details. The government earlier reported two deaths in Fuding, a city in neighboring Fujian province. Xinhua didn't say how the latest deaths occurred, but said 7,300 homes were destroyed. Damage was expected to be widespread in areas that were still recovering from Tropical Storm Bilis, which claimed more than 600 lives last month. Saomai had winds of up to 216 kph (135 mph), according to Chinese forecasters. The Zhejiang provincial weather bureau said it was the most powerful storm to hit China since at least 1949. Saomai, dubbed a "super typhoon" by Chinese forecasters due to its huge size and high wind speeds, was the eighth major storm of this year's unusually violent typhoon season. It killed at least two people in the Philippines earlier in the week and dumped rain on Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights. Eight Taiwanese sailors were missing late Thursday after two ships capsized in a harbor in Fujian, while four Chinese were missing after their ship struck a reef, according to Xinhua. Saomai is the Vietnamese name for the planet Venus. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/11/content_662573.htm