Hui asked emergency management officials to monitor the flooding and other hazards carefully so as to relocate people as quickly as possible to minimize casualties.

On August 11, the water level in Taihu Lake, China's third largest lake, rose to 4.08 meters, the highest in 10 years and well above the level of 3.5 meters that sets off alarms. The continuous showers caused by Morakot in Taihu's basin area since August 9 have forced local flood control authorities to monitor the lake around the clock.

China's Ministry of Finance has allocated 102 million yuan ($15 million) as emergency relief funds to the hardest-hit Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, the ministry said on August 11.

Of the total, 42 million yuan ($6.2 million) will be used to help relocate people, while 60 million yuan ($8.8 million) will be used for flood control and repairing damaged water conservation projects, the ministry said.

Taiwan's losses

According to statistics released by Taiwan's agricultural authorities on August 12, farm and fisheries losses stood at about 8.85 billion new Taiwan dollars ($268 million), making it the second most disastrous typhoon to Taiwan's agriculture in the last 19 years. Local transport authorities reported damages totaling nearly 1.6 billion new Taiwan dollars ($48.5 million) to the island's highway and railway systems.

Disaster relief centers have dispatched helicopters to transport villagers and airdrop goods in mountainous regions in central-south Taiwan where roads and bridges were destroyed by floods.

People have already started to repair homes and infrastructure in parts of Taiwan where the waters have started to retreat, local media reported.

As of August 11, about 860,000 households in Taiwan were still without tap water after the floods washed away water supply lines.

Cyclone winds knocked out power to 1.59 million households, though 1.57 million of which had already restored power as of 10 a.m. on August 12. Typhoon Morakot also damaged telecommunications facilities in central-south Taiwan, local disaster relief authorities said.

Red Cross organizations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits have called on people to make donations in response to the disaster. Residents donated cash and goods worth billions of new Taiwan dollars to support relief work. Vice Governor of Fujian Province, Chen Ye, donated 1 million yuan ($147,000) for typhoon relief on behalf of Fujian's Red Cross Society to the Taiwan people on August 10 during her one-week visit to the island. The same day, a visiting delegation of major commercial banks on the mainland also donated 1 million yuan ($147,000) for disaster relief on the island.

Storm damage to crops and transport networks caused vegetable supplies at the Taipei Vegetable and Fruit Market on August 11 to fall to 1,090 tons, a decrease of 78 tons compared to the previous trading day, said Taiwan-based The China Post. Fujian-based agricultural company Chaoda Modern has contacted Kaohsiung County, one of Taiwan's hardest hit, to supply disaster-hit areas with vegetables produced on the mainland.

Sixteen mainland tourists who were trapped on popular tourist destination Mount Ali during the typhoon were evacuated on August 11. Taiwan's tourism authorities said on August 10 that there was no casualty on 9,481 tourists from the Chinese mainland who were visiting Taiwan when Morakot slammed into the island.

Taiwan's Kuomintang party on August 11 sent a letter thanking the mainland for concern over the island's losses from the typhoon. People on both sides should cherish cross-Straits goodwill and interaction that are displayed in times of major disasters, the letter said.

On August 11, the mainland-based Cross-Straits Agricultural Exchange Association sent its condolences to farmers and fishermen who suffered losses during the typhoon. The association said it was willing to provide the necessary disaster relief assistance and reconstruction based on Taiwan's needs.