Typhoon Longwang headed for China after swirling through Taiwan yesterday, injuring at least 34 people. As the storm approached, more than 200,000 people were evacuated from boats to land in China’s eastern province of Fujian, state media said.

Most of those injured in Taiwan suffered cuts from broken glass, while strong winds lifted roofs off four homes and a university dormitory in the east coast mountain city of Hualien, disaster response officials at Taiwan’s National Fire Administration said.

“The damage and casualty situation right now looks as if we have had some good fortune in the midst of this misfortune”, Premier Frank Hsieh told reporters at the government’s disaster center.

The storm also delayed President Chen Shui-bian’s return home after a visit to South America, forcing him to land at Indonesia’s Bali island. The storm’s eye was over the ocean west-southwest of the central city of Taichung and the storm was headed west northwest at 18 kph, though much of the island remained under its influence, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said.

Longwang, or “dragon king” in Chinese, had maximum sustained winds of 137 kph (85 mph) and gusts of up to 173 kph (108 mph), but has weakened as it passed over Taiwan’s central mountains, the weather bureau said.

The center of the storm was projected to make landfall in China’s eastern province of Fujian later yesterday. China’s state-run CCTV said Longwang would bring torrential rains to Fujian and the southern province of Guangdong yesterday and today.

Regular ferry services between Fujian’s city of Xiamen and nearby islands, which lie close to Taiwan, had been suspended, CCTV said.

The official Xinhua news agency said Fujian province issued an alert and called fishing boats back to port.

Xinhua also said people living in coastal areas, close to river banks and areas susceptible to landslides or mudslides or flooding were being relocated to safe areas in Fujian.

Typhoons frequently menace Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and eastern China during the storm season that lasts from early summer to late autumn. Typhoon Haitang killed 12 people in July, with three still listed as missing.

In 2001, one of Taiwan’s deadliest years for storms, Typhoon Toraji, killed 200 people. A few months later, Typhoon Nari caused Taipei’s worst flooding on record and killed 100.