Nearly 100 people were confirmed dead after a rare tornado swept through a heavily populated area of China.
The powerful tornado killed 98 with up 800 injured, near the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu province, located about 500 miles south of Beijing.
The disaster was declared a national emergency by the Chinese government
Tornados do occasionally occur in China’s south during summer but one of this magnitude is extremely rare.
Studies will be carried out to determine why it was so powerful, said Ding Yihui, a researcher at the National Climate Center of China’s Metrological Administration.
"In the U.S., there could be as many as a dozen or more tornadoes in a single day, but in China they are more rare and isolated," Ding said. "We are able to forecast a severe convective weather, but we aren’t able to forecast the time of the occurrence of a tornado, let alone the severity of a tornado."
Hundreds of houses were damaged along with dozens of factories and schools in Jiangsu and the central government has approved the spending of 160 million yuan to cover disaster relief in the area.
