TAIPEI, Sept 21, 2010 (AFP) - Taiwan said Tuesday that two people were killed when Typhoon Fanapi swept across the island this week. A 45-year-old shrimp farmer surnamed Chen was electrocuted Monday by a falling power cable in south Taiwan's Pingtung county, the National Fire Agency reported. Also on Monday, a 73-year-old farmer also identified only by his surname Chu drowned in his rice paddy in Tainan county in the island's south, the agency said. Fanapi, the strongest typhoon to hit the region this year with winds of up to 220 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, made landfall Sunday and dumped up to 1,000 millimetres (40 inches) of rain in the south. Industrial and agricultural damage wrought by the typhoon were estimated at around five billion Taiwan dollars (158 million US), according to the government.
Just over a year ago, Morakot devastated southern Taiwan, leaving more than 700 people dead or missing in one of the island's worst natural disasters.
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